Earthrise Space, Inc. is a not for profit organization that was founded by a group of students and professionals in Central Florida with the common goal of advancing private and commercial space exploration.

Our current focus, the Omega Envoy project, will help realize these goals through successful competition in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. We believe that any team with enough dedication and sufficient engineering expertise can make incremental technological advancements that will expand the horizons of human space exploration. Through outreach to all academic and professional levels, coupled with synergistic business relationships, we hope to maintain Florida’s position as the global leader in the space industry.

The current mission plan involves launch from Kennedy Space Center aboard a vehicle capable of inserting 1000kg into low earth orbit. At present, the candidate vehicles include the SpaceX Falcon 1e, Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV and Minotaur V, and the Lockheed Martin Athena II. After launch, an ATK Star series rocket motor will propel the translunar configuration on a translunar trajectory. Another ATK Star motor will be tasked with slowing the landing configuration down for a direct lunar descent. The timing of this motor firing will be such that most of the tangential velocity in relation to the lunar surface will be depleted. A lander housing the rover vehicle will make final attitude adjustments and provide additional velocity depletion in the normal direction before landing on the lunar surface. The rover vehicle, communicating with Earth via the USN, will deploy from the lander platform and begin visual survey of the landing area before continuing along the lunar terrain.

Team Leaders

Ruben D. Nunez | Project Director
Ruben is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). One of his latest accomplishments was a Kinetic Exchange by Magnetic Means Project on a Zero Gravity flight. His goal is to control an object that moves freely in a zero-g environment. He also completed the Space Academy Program at Kennedy Space Center in December 2006. Living in Central America, Geneva, Switzerland, and Dominican Republic has given him the experience and opportunity to learn Spanish and French culture. He currently represents UCF by teaching high school teachers how to teach inquiry based lessons in Osceola County.

Jason Dunn, BSAE | Engineering & Space Concepts Director
Jason Dunn is currently pursuing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Central Florida with an emphasis in Thermal Fluids. He has a strong passion for space exploration specifically to help permanently have a human colonization of space. As the Director of Projects for the UCF chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) he has helped many students get involved with rocketry and zero gravity research, as well as flying his own research project on soldering in micro gravity in zero-g. Currently Jason is a graduate research assistant at the Center for Advanced Turbine and Energy Research Laboratory (CATER) at UCF where he is using the Supersonic Wind Tunnel to do research on Scramjet and Combined Cycle propulsion systems to investigate more effective means of space access. His ultimate goal is to start a private space business to do his part in moving humans off of the Earth.

Justin Karl, BSAE, BSEP, MSAE | Engineering Consultant
Justin is a PhD student at the University of Central Florida. His current pursuits lie in the field of Mechanical Engineering, with a focus on aerospace-related applications. Justin was born in 1981 in Ocean City, MD and spent the first 18 years of his life on the beachy island. After High School, he attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL where he earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics. After his undergraduate work, he continued at Embry-Riddle with a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering before moving to UCF in 2006 to pursue the doctoral degree. Justin currently researches based out of the MOMRG lab and conducts mechanical testing in an effort to revise the currently crude methods of life prediction in thermo mechanical fatigue situations. Specifically, he hopes to improve life prediction in high-temperature turbine applications.

Justin's primary focus and research has most recently been all related to structures and the application of solid and continuum mechanics, but his abilities and interests also include general spacecraft design, propulsion, systems integration, and nondestructive testing.