Dr. Richard Obousy
President, Co-Founder, Project Icarus Senior Designer
Dr. Richard K. Obousy (Ph.D (Physics) Baylor University 2008), is currently President for Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit research foundation dedicated to researching technologies that will enable breakthroughs in interstellar travel. He is also a regular guest contributor for Discovery Space News. Dr. Obousy completed his Ph.D in theoretical physics in 2008, with a dissertation titled “Investigation into Compactified Dimensions: Casimir Energies and Phenomenological Aspects“, which was largely focused on understanding the nature of the vacuum of quantum field theory. Prior to studying for his Ph.D, Dr. Obousy worked for the UK Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) as a radar physicist. He successfully organized an award-winning polarimetric radar experiment in Hawaii in 2001. He was recently a chapter contributor for the book “Going Interstellar”, edited by Jack McDevitt and Les Johnson (Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center).
Selected Peer Reviewed Publications (from over 15) include:
- Obousy, R.K., “Vacuum to Antimatter Rocket Interstellar Explorer System“, JBIS 64 No.11/12 pp 378-386 (2011).
- Obousy, R.K., “Project Icarus: A 21st Century Interstellar Starship Study”, JBIS release pending.
- Obousy, R. K., Tziolas, A.C., Long, K., F., Galea, P., Crowl, A., Crawford, I., A., Swinney, R., Hein, A., Osborne, R., Reiss, P., “Project Icarus: Progress Report on Technical Developments and Design Considerations Update on the progress of Project Icarus.” JBIS 64 No.11/12 pp 358-371 (2011)
- Obousy, R.K., and Cleaver, G., “Casimir Energy and Brane Stability” Journal of Geometry and Physics, V61, Issue 3, pp. 577-588, (2009) arXiv:0810.1096 [hep-th].
- Obousy, R.K., and Cleaver, G., “Radius Destabilization in Five Dimensional Orbifolds from Lorentz Violating Fields”, Mod.Phys.Lett A24, 1495-1506 (2009).
- K.F.Long, M.Fogg, R.Obousy, A.Tziolas, A.Mann, R.Osborne, A.Presby. “Project Icarus: Son of Daedalus – Flying Closer to Another Star“, JBIS, 62 No. 11/12, pp403-416 Nov/Dec 2009.
- K.F.Long, R.K.Obousy, “Starships of the Future”, Spaceflight Magazine, 2011.
- Obousy, R.K., Robinson, M., and Cleaver, G., “A Non-Standard String Embedding of E(8).”, Mod.Phys.Lett A24, 1577-1582, arXiv:0810.1038 [hep-ph] (2009).
- R. Obousy and G. Cleaver, “Warp drive: A new approach”, JBIS, vol. 61, pp. 149, 2008.
- K.F.Long, R.K.Obousy, A.Hein, “Project Icarus: Optimisation of nuclear fusion propulsion for interstellar missions”, Acta Astronautica, 68, pp. 1820-1829, (2011).
- Obousy, R.K., “Evaluation of Antiproton Catalyzed Fusion for Interstellar propulsion”, Project Icarus Internal Publication, 2011.
- Obousy, R.K., “Investigation into Compactified Dimensions: Casimir Energies and Phenomenological Aspects.”, Ph.D Dissertation (2009).
- Obousy, R.K., and Tziolas, A.C., “Searching For Extant Life on Mars: The ATP Firefly Luciferin/Luciferase Technique”, JBIS, Vol 53, pp121-130, 2000.
- Obousy, R.K., “The Zeta Function Approach to Casimir Energy Calculations in Higher Dimensions“
Education University of Leicester Physics M.Phys 1999 Baylor University Physics Ph.D 2008
Appointments
- 2011 – President of Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit research corporation
- 2010 – Project Leader of Project Icarus
- 2010 – Adjunct Professor ITT Technical Institute
- 2010 – Adjunct Professor Houston Community College
- 2008 – Primary Propulsion Lead for Project Icarus
- 2008 – President Richard Obousy Consulting LLC
- 2008 – Founder and General Manager CitizenShipper LLC
- 2002 – 2008 Ph.D Physics Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant at Baylor University
- 1999-2002 – Research Scientist, UK Defense Evaluation and Research Agency
Collaborators Vint Cerf, Vice President of Google Ralph Mcnutt, Project Scientist and a Co-Investigator on NASA’s MESSENGER mission Marc Millis, Former Project Manager for NASA BPP program and President Tau Zero Foundation Greg Matloff, Tenured astronomy professor with the physics department of New York City College of Technology
Selected Media Appearances
- Appeared on the History Channels show The Universe, for an episode titled “UFO’s – The Real Deal“.
- Appeared on the History Channels show The Universe, for an episode titled “Time Travel” (August 2010).
- Interviewed by the BBC world service on issues relating to interstellar travel (August 2011).
- Guest speaker on David Livingstone’s The Space Show (May 2011).
- Guest speaker on Seth Shostak’s (SETI) weekly radio show in an episode called Fuel’s Paradise (Apr 2011).
- Guest speaker in Going to The Stars Independent filmmaker documentary (2009).
Selected Popular Science Articles
- Obousy, R.K., Project Daedalus: A Plan for an Interstellar Mission, Discovery Space News.
- Obousy, R.K., Using Fusion to Propel an Interstellar Probe, Discovery Space News.
- Obousy, R.K., Sooner, Not Later: Interstellar Voyages a Reality? Discovery Space News.
- Obousy, R.K., Interstellar Space Flight: Social and Economic Considerations, Icarus blog.
- Obousy, R.K., Project Icarus -A Design for an Interstellar Spacecraft, Icarus blog.
- Obousy, R.K., Antimatter Propulsion – the beginnings of true interstellar flight, Icarus blog.
- Obousy, R.K., Project Daedalus – Background, Icarus blog.
- Obousy, R.K., The Daedalus Propulsion System, Icarus blog.
Other Notable Accomplishments
- Cofounder of Project Icarus
- Cofounder and President of Icarus Interstellar Inc.
- Founder and Manager of CitizenShipper LLC
- Founder and CEO of Richard Obousy Consulting LLC
- Chairman of Public Outreach Committee for Icarus Interstellar
- Deputy Chairman of Business Development Committee for Icarus Interstellar
- Project Leader for Casimir Energy Research Group for Icarus Interstellar
- Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society
- Collaborator on Enzmann Starship Research Project
- Producer and presenter of online mini-documentary on interstellar travel called Interstellar Journey
Affiliations
- Member of British Interplanetary Society Technical Committee
- Member of The Mars Society
- Practitioner of the Tau Zero Foundation
- Member of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
Graduate Advisor Professor Gerald Cleaver, Associate Professor of Physics, Baylor University (September 2002 to April 2011).
