Michael Clive is a technical director at Rhythm and Hues studios and will be, at the time of the SpaceUp event, an intern at XCOR aerospace.

He started his career in space a little over 10 years ago with an internship at the NASA Goddard Space Flight center. He was later hired there as a multimedia specialist and produced graphics for the space science directorate. Seeing that NASA was a dead end for those without higher degrees, he went on to college, spending two years at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Education bored him, and he pushed to escape it as quickly as possible. Luckily, Digital Domain hired him in his second year of college.

Drilling holes in custom enclosure for a milling machine.

He gigged around the world of cinematic visual effects for six years. working on visual effects for 7 major motion pictures, with a specialty in simulation design. About two years ago, he got bored of sitting behind a box and started to build things. Rocket engines.

He became active in the Los Angeles commercial space community, attending conferences, assisting the Friends of Amateur Rocketry, starting community events. The whole time, he was building hardware at Crashspace, a hackerspace in Culver City. He is presently working on an experimental liquid fueled linear aerospike engine system. The work on his own projects gave him enough velocity to escape from Hollywood and into the commercial space industry.

About to push the button on a propane/oxygen spark torch igniter.

SpaceUps attended: San Diego 2011

Personal website: http://www.clivefx.com

Contact: clive@spaceupla.org