AJ Gemer - Alumni Spotlight

Southwest High School alumnus AJ Gemer is heading to the stars, or at least his lunar rovers are. 

The Class of 2006 graduate is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Lunar Outpost, a technology company that landed its first rover on the Moon in 2025. Gemer leads the development of lunar mobility and robotics systems for the company. According to the company’s website, Lunar Outpost’s vehicles help the U.S. and allies build the infrastructure for a lasting presence on the moon.

In 2017, Gemer and the other Lunar Outpost co-founders were looking at emerging trends in the aerospace industry. Germer said they found that a lot of people were looking to send things to the moon in the near future, with a need for regular or recurring landings on the moon. With commercial space exploration on the rise, Gemer and his co-founders found an avenue to explore: mobility services.

“We looked at that and said well, I think people once they get to the moon are going to need mobility services… we set out to become the leading commercial mobility space provider,” Gemer said.

Gemer said he and his team are at the forefront of this work. While other lunar rover companies existed, those companies often started with concepts, renderings and raising investments. The team at Lunar Outpost wanted to be different, so they started building actual rovers.

“Let's build our rover first and then show it off,” Gemer said. “So that’s what we did. We developed our first rover we call MAPP (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform) completely in stealth mode. And when we first debuted it, we already were showing videos of this rover that was ready to launch into space, driving around in these highly-specialized lunar test bed facilities.”

Gemer said it was this tactic that made Lunar Outpost stand out. 

“They saw that and they said, ‘okay well, this thing exists, it’s ready to go. It’s not something of the future, it's ready to go right now.’”

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Space exploration wasn’t necessarily the dream career for Gemer, but he said he has always been interested in space.

“I think that space exploration is one of those things that is a great uniter,” Gemer said. “You know, it brings people together. All humans look up at the stars and kind of wonder what’s out there. That definitely drew me in.”

After high school, Gemer attended the University of Colorado Boulder to study aerospace engineering. He graduated with a bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering Science and later went on to earn dual master’s degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from CU Boulder.

While his time at CU Boulder cemented him in the work he does now, Gemer said his time at Southwest High School laid a foundation.

Gemer attended area private schools for elementary and middle school, but when it came to high school, his father chose to enroll him into Southwest for the academic opportunities.

“[Southwest] had a good physics program; that was important to my dad," Gemer said. “The ability to take physics as a freshman was definitely part of his decision.”

Gemer said he spent much of his time in high school building things and working on cars and motorcycles. He also took all of the engineering classes Southwest had to offer.

“That really sort of told me I really can do this,” Gemer said. “I may not know everything right now, but there is a path for me to learn it and I’m interested and excited in doing that.”

He also attributes his success at Southwest and beyond to his teachers.

“I had really great support from the teachers in those areas,” Gemer said. “I still keep in touch with Pat VanLieshout who was my shop teacher at that time. He helped and encouraged me to do this program called SkillsUSA.”

SkillsUSA is a workforce development organization for students. Students in various trades can practice and compete at the local, state and national levels. Areas of competition range from 3D animation to welding, with things like cosmetology, culinary arts, technical drafting and more.

While at Southwest, Gemer competed at the national level for motorcycle service and repair. He won regionals two years running and later took third place at the national level. 

“I think that encouragement and sort of believing in me and showing me, ‘hey, you know you can do this and you can do this at a really high level.’ That was really inspiring for me and so I really appreciate all the great teachers that I had at that time,” Gemer said.

Gemer had a well-rounded experience at Southwest. From his time in trades classes, to running Track, to foundational courses in math and science, and his early start in physics, he said all of that set him up for a great career in engineering and science.

Beyond his career, Southwest had other impacts on his life. Gemer was lucky to meet the love of his life while in high school, Heidi Williquette.

“I ended up marrying my high school sweetheart, so I have lots of great memories of the time we spent together at Southwest,” Gemer said.

As far as what is next for Gemer and Lunar Outpost? The organization recently released a documentary about its first rover mission to the Moon. Hear about Lunar Outpost’s future plans in The MAPP Rover Story on YouTube.

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