Rick Tumlinson
Encyclopedia
Rick Tumlinson is the co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation
and a space activist
. He has testified on space-related topics before the U.S. Congress six times since 1995. In 2004, Space News magazine recently listed Tumlinson as one of the 100 most influential people in the space industry, stating:
. He was the son of a retired U.S. Air Force Sergeant and English wife, and was educated primarily in England
and Texas.
To support his space activism in his early years, Tumlinson produced a series of animated videos used to gain funding for the Air Force's DC-X rocket project, the International Space University
, the X-33 rocket program, the Air Force's Space Command
and created the first ever paid political announcement for space, which was featured on NPR's All Things Considered.
Mr. Tumlinson worked for noted scientist Gerard K. O'Neill at the Space Studies Institute
and was a key player in starting the Lunar Prospector
project which discovered hints of water on the Moon. He also lobbied to help pass the Space Settlement Act of 1988, testified before President Ronald Reagan
's National Commission on Space, and was a founding trustee of the X-Prize
.
Over the years he has been a witness in six congressional hearings on the future of NASA, the US space program and space tourism
. In early 2004, Tumlinson testified before Senator John McCain
and the Senate Space and Technology Committee on the Moon, Mars and Beyond program.
Mr. Tumlinson conducts many talks and speeches in the field of space advocacy
. Topics of his talks range from critiques and discussions of current national space policy, presentation of a "Frontier" ideology for opening space, to the how and why of returning to the Moon, to a spiritual discussion of our place in the universe, the search for other life and the reasons why humans are reaching for the stars.
He co-founded the now dissolved firm LunaCorp
, which teamed up with Radio Shack
on a proposed mission to send a robot rover
to the moon to confirm that ice exists at its poles. He led the team which turned the Mir
Space Station
into the world's first commercial space facility, and was a co-founder of the space firm MirCorp. Along the way he personally signed up Dennis Tito
, the world's first "citizen explorer," and has assisted in numerous other such projects.
Rick was the Executive Director and co-Founder of the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS), a foundation with the objective to fund breakthrough projects and activities such as Helium 3 research, laser launch studies, and asteroid processing projects. The organization provided the first $100k in seed money for the founding of the Mars Society
, operated the Cheap Access to Space Prize and supported such projects as The WATCH asteroid search program. FINDS also underwrote and co-sponsored a very successful series of Senate Roundtables on space issues in conjunction with the Foundation and the lobby ProSpace
over the last few years.
A regular contributor to the space industry paper Space News, Tumlinson's writings and quotes have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times
, Miami Herald, Reader's Digest
and other publications around the world. He has appeared on such television programs as ABC
's World News Tonight, the CBS Morning Show, and Politically Incorrect
. Internationally, he has appeared on TV sets from Russia to China's CCTV and the BBC
and been quoted in a wide range of journals, from The Economist
to China's People's Daily
. Tumlinson has appeared on the front page of the New York Times, has been featured in two issues of Popular Science
, and appeared as an expert guest on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
," CNBC
's "Open Exchange" and was quoted in papers such as the Washington Post, LA Times, and the Orlando Sentinel
, regarding the Space Shuttle Columbia
disaster. He also appears often as a space commentator on CNN
.
In 2004, Tumlinson was one of 20 guests invited by the White House to hear President George W. Bush
announce his plans to return to the Moon
and explore Mars
. This year he joined NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which is laying out the framework for the first human outpost on the Moon and steps towards putting humans on Mars. He has been a consultant to the Robert A. Heinlein
and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust. He is editor of a book entitled Return to the Moon, a collection of papers by leading professionals in the space industry regarding the future of space exploration and the privatization of the return to the moon. In 2006, Tumlinson started his own space firm, XTreme Space and Orbital Outfitters.
Space Frontier Foundation
The Space Frontier Foundation is a space advocacy nonprofit corporation organized to promote the interests of increased involvement of the private sector, in collaboration with government, in the exploration and development of space...
and a space activist
Space advocacy
Space advocacy can be described as the general position supporting, pleading or arguing for the idea or cause of space exploration and settlements...
. He has testified on space-related topics before the U.S. Congress six times since 1995. In 2004, Space News magazine recently listed Tumlinson as one of the 100 most influential people in the space industry, stating:
Part agitator, part operator, Tumlinson has spent the past two decades advocating human exploration and settlement of the solar system and has been a strong advocate of creating commercial opportunities at the Russian Mir space station and at the international space station.
Background
Tumlinson was born to a Texas family whose roots were involved with the co-founding of the Texas Rangers and fighting at the AlamoAlamo Mission in San Antonio
The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas....
. He was the son of a retired U.S. Air Force Sergeant and English wife, and was educated primarily in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Texas.
To support his space activism in his early years, Tumlinson produced a series of animated videos used to gain funding for the Air Force's DC-X rocket project, the International Space University
International Space University
The International Space University is a private university founded in 1987. The University currently offers three degree granting programs — Master of Science in Space Management, Master of Science in Space Studies and Executive MBA — in addition to a non-degree-granting Space Studies Program.The...
, the X-33 rocket program, the Air Force's Space Command
Space Command
Space Command may refer to:* United States Space Command** Air Force Space Command** Naval Space command** Space and Missile Defense Command, a major command of the United States Army* Space Command , a 1950s Canadian television programme...
and created the first ever paid political announcement for space, which was featured on NPR's All Things Considered.
Mr. Tumlinson worked for noted scientist Gerard K. O'Neill at the Space Studies Institute
Space Studies Institute
Space Studies Institute is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1977 by the late Princeton University Professor Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill. The stated mission is to "open the energy and material resources of space for human benefit within our lifetime"...
and was a key player in starting the Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector
The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...
project which discovered hints of water on the Moon. He also lobbied to help pass the Space Settlement Act of 1988, testified before President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's National Commission on Space, and was a founding trustee of the X-Prize
Ansari X Prize
The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks...
.
Over the years he has been a witness in six congressional hearings on the future of NASA, the US space program and space tourism
Space tourism
Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...
. In early 2004, Tumlinson testified before Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and the Senate Space and Technology Committee on the Moon, Mars and Beyond program.
Mr. Tumlinson conducts many talks and speeches in the field of space advocacy
Space advocacy
Space advocacy can be described as the general position supporting, pleading or arguing for the idea or cause of space exploration and settlements...
. Topics of his talks range from critiques and discussions of current national space policy, presentation of a "Frontier" ideology for opening space, to the how and why of returning to the Moon, to a spiritual discussion of our place in the universe, the search for other life and the reasons why humans are reaching for the stars.
Contributions and projects
Tumlinson founded the Permission to Dream project, which has over the years placed dozens of telescopes in the hands of schools and groups around the world in hopes to educate and inspire interest in space.He co-founded the now dissolved firm LunaCorp
LunaCorp
LunaCorp, a small but ambitious private company headed by its former president David Gump, was established in 1989. It was designed around a privately-funded mission, using Russian technology, to put a rover on the Moon. The aim for the company was to fund the mission by the entertainment value of...
, which teamed up with Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...
on a proposed mission to send a robot rover
Rover (space exploration)
A rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other astronomical body. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots...
to the moon to confirm that ice exists at its poles. He led the team which turned the Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
Space Station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
into the world's first commercial space facility, and was a co-founder of the space firm MirCorp. Along the way he personally signed up Dennis Tito
Dennis Tito
Dennis Anthony Tito is an Italian American engineer and multimillionaire, most widely known as the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In mid-2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station...
, the world's first "citizen explorer," and has assisted in numerous other such projects.
Rick was the Executive Director and co-Founder of the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS), a foundation with the objective to fund breakthrough projects and activities such as Helium 3 research, laser launch studies, and asteroid processing projects. The organization provided the first $100k in seed money for the founding of the Mars Society
Mars Society
The Mars Society is an international space advocacy non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. It was founded by Robert Zubrin and others in 1998 and attracted the support of notable science fiction writers and filmmakers, including Kim...
, operated the Cheap Access to Space Prize and supported such projects as The WATCH asteroid search program. FINDS also underwrote and co-sponsored a very successful series of Senate Roundtables on space issues in conjunction with the Foundation and the lobby ProSpace
ProSpace
ProSpace is a nonprofit citizens Space advocacy group that focuses on opening the space frontier for all individuals.Every year in March many of the group's members travel to Washington, D.C. for an event called "March Storm." Annually, these members speak to the congressional leaders and push...
over the last few years.
A regular contributor to the space industry paper Space News, Tumlinson's writings and quotes have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Miami Herald, Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
and other publications around the world. He has appeared on such television programs as ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's World News Tonight, the CBS Morning Show, and Politically Incorrect
Politically Incorrect
Politically Incorrect is a late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that ran from 1993 to 2002. It premiered on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1997, and later on ABC in 1997, which cancelled it in 2002....
. Internationally, he has appeared on TV sets from Russia to China's CCTV and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and been quoted in a wide range of journals, from The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
to China's People's Daily
People's Daily
The People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...
. Tumlinson has appeared on the front page of the New York Times, has been featured in two issues of Popular Science
Popular Science
Popular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
, and appeared as an expert guest on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
," CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
's "Open Exchange" and was quoted in papers such as the Washington Post, LA Times, and the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
, regarding the Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...
disaster. He also appears often as a space commentator on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
.
In 2004, Tumlinson was one of 20 guests invited by the White House to hear President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
announce his plans to return to the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and explore Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. This year he joined NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which is laying out the framework for the first human outpost on the Moon and steps towards putting humans on Mars. He has been a consultant to the Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust. He is editor of a book entitled Return to the Moon, a collection of papers by leading professionals in the space industry regarding the future of space exploration and the privatization of the return to the moon. In 2006, Tumlinson started his own space firm, XTreme Space and Orbital Outfitters.