Robert D. Richards
Robert (Bob) Richards
Born
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
EducationRyerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), University of Toronto and Cornell University
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forPrivate spaceflight industry
Scientific career
InstitutionsMoon Express

Robert D. Richards is a Canadian-born space entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, Inc., a U.S. company partnered with NASA and developing robotic spacecraft to provide low cost access to the Moon for science, exploration and commerce.[1] He is also the founder and former CEO of Odyssey Moon Limited,[2] an Isle of Man based commercial lunar enterprise and the first official contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition.[3] From 2002-2009 he was the founding Director of the Space Division at Optech Incorporated, providing advanced lidar systems for spacecraft operations and planetary exploration, including NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander and OSIRIS-REx missions.

In 1987 Robert Richards founded the International Space University (ISU) together with Todd B. Hawley and Peter Diamandis[4] and he served as the university's first Associate Administrator for Strategic Planning and chaired the board's administrative and strategic planning committees during ISU's first phase of development. In 2005 Robert Richards received a Doctorate of Space Achievement (honoris causa) from the International Space University for “distinguished accomplishments in support of humanity’s exploration and use of space.”

As a student in the 1980s Robert Richards co-founded the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) together with Todd B. Hawley and Peter Diamandis. After coining the term "Space Generation", symbolizing a common bond among people born since the beginning of the space age, Robert Richards also co-founded the Space Generation Foundation with Hawley and Diamandis, now succeeded by the Space Generation Advisory Council.

In 2008 Robert Richards joined Peter Diamandis, Ray Kurzweil and others in the founding of Singularity University, an institution based at the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, California, focused on graduate and executive level education about exponentially advancing technologies. Robert Richards remains an active supporter of these organizations.

  1. ↑ "MoonEx aims to scour moon for rare materials". Los Angeles Times. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2011-04-10. MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles. ... The company is among several teams hoping to someday win the Google Lunar X Prize competition, a $30-million race to the moon in which a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface and have it explore at least 1/3 of a mile. It also must transmit high definition video and images back to Earth before 2016. ... should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013
  2. ↑ "Reaching for the Moon: Interview with Robert Richards". CNN. 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  3. ↑ "CBC National Newsclip - Odyssey Moon". CBC News. Archived from the original (Video) on July 16, 2012. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  4. ↑ Cowen, Robert C. (5 July 1988). "Space University takes off with the first international summer institute". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
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