Ampyx Power is an airborne wind energy company founded in 2008 by Bas Lansdorp and Richard Ruiterkamp. It was created after Lansdorp dropped his five-year-long studies of wind energy at Delft University of Technology to found Ampyx Power. In 2011, Lansdorp sold a majority of his Ampyx Power shares for about 18,000€ to fund his new project, Mars One. Wubbo Ockels' interest in energy began when he let a kite line slip and it burned his hand. He became interested and started to study and research how this could be turned into electricity. At Delft University, he formed a team with Bas Lansdorp that worked on developing kites that could retrieve energy from the sky. Richard Ruiterkamp became the team leader and he created a fixed wing aircraft that allowed greater controllability and allowing