™
Go UP young man!
Home | Lunar Lander Challenge | Sponsors | HyFlyer™ | HoverBike™ | Vertical Drag Racer | News | About Us | Contact
SpeedUp’s™ business is to find new market niches where our core competency of building and flying hydrogen peroxide propelled rockets gives us a competitive advantage and design new vehicles from existing components to meet the requirements of those niches. We are not an R&D shop or a component developer. Or at least we try not to be. Our vision is to be a vehicle integrator using commercially available components.
Robert has a long history of interest in space exploration and aerospace technology development. His passion and versatility make him the perfect candidate to run a small business developing the personal rocketcraft.
Robert received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2001. While there he participated in the Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle Challenge in which an interdisciplinary team of engineering students built both the hardware and software of an autonomous robotic rover. He then went to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 2001 until 2006. At JPL, Robert worked on both the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission, and the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission. His work once again involved interdisciplinary teams responsible for both the hardware and software aspects of a particular system.
While with SpeedUp™, Robert has led the development of the Laramie Rose, our Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle.
SpeedUp™ vehicles will use an attitude control system (ACS) developed by Frontier Astronautics to achieve human directed, but computer piloted flight.
SpeedUp™ vehicles will be tested and flown at Frontier Astronautics' spaceport near Chugwater, Wyoming. The area around Chugwater has extremely low population density allowing for low risk to the uninvolved public and low insurance costs.
SpeedUp's™ strategy of using hydrogen peroxide propulsion relies on having a stable supply of propellant grade hydrogen peroxide. SpeedUp™ currently purchases propellant from Peroxide Propulsion, which supplies hydrogen peroxide exclusively for propulsion applications. To ensure a stable supply, Peroxide Propulsion has its own plant for concentrating hydrogen peroxide.