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. Co-founding Earthrise Space, Inc. is just the first step in Jason’s plans to creating a space fairing civilization. Much of Jason’s motivations for what he does comes from being an active member of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). It is through SEDS that he has met the people that told him to follow his dreams and that there is much more to space than NASA. Currently Jason is a graduate research assistant at the Center for Advanced Turbine and Energy Research (CATER) at UCF where he is doing research on Scramjet and Combined Cycle propulsion systems to investigate more effective means of space access. As the Engineering and Space Concepts Director for the Omega Envoy Project, Jason brings to the table a wealth of knowledge, leadership, connections, and most importantly; motivation. It is his job to keep everyone on the team excited and productive; and he is doing just that.
