Tumlinson worked for scientist Gerard K. O'Neill at the Space Studies Institute and was involved in starting the Lunar Prospector project which discovered hints of water on the Moon.
Tumlinson founded the Permission to Dream project, which has over the years placed dozens of telescopes in the hands of schools and groups around the world in hopes to educate and inspire interest in space.
[3] He co-founded the now dissolved firm LunaCorp, which teamed up with Radio Shack on a proposed mission to send a robot rover to the moon to confirm that ice exists at its poles.
The organization provided the first $100k in seed money for the founding of the Mars Society, operated the Cheap Access to Space Prize and supported such projects as The WATCH asteroid search program.
Tumlinson is a member of the Leadership Board of For All Moonkind, Inc. a nonprofit organization committed to creating an effective and enforceable system to manage and protect human heritage in outer space.