Keeping the Wheels Turning- HUNTSVILLE AL- When America's space agency hosts
the annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race® April 26-27 in Huntsville, Ala., it will
mark 20 years of "keeping the wheels turning," say organizers of the
popular education initiative at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville.
They are referring to the wheels on the lightweight, human-powered"moonbuggies" designed, built and tested since 1993-94 by about 10,000 high-school- and college-aged students who have participated in the Great Moonbuggy Race.
Each spring, scores of students register for the race and travel to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville to represent their schools, their youth organizations, their hometowns large and small, or even countries half a world away. They compare inventive buggy designs, meet NASA team members, and spend two grueling days demonstrating can-do spirit and teamwork as they tackle a rocky, obstacle-strewn "lunar" race course. All of this is done in pursuit of the educational challenge and the victory of problem-solving, as well as pride in accomplishment, trophies and, yes, good old-fashioned bragging rights.
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The race is held each spring at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.
This year, roughly 100 registered student teams from 33 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico and Russia are working feverishly to complete this year's crop of buggies and raise the funds to make the trip.
NASA engineer Mike Selby was a student racer for the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1995 and 1996. He and his teammates those years won second and first place, respectively. Selby graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and went right to work for NASA. He has been a race volunteer ever since -- one of hundreds from Marshall who come out to help -- and for the past several years has served as head timekeeper. He considers it payback.
For two decades, NASA has sought to capture new generations in similar fashion."Only about 5 percent of students can get really excited about cracking open textbooks," Randall says. "For the rest, it takes something more. It takes passion. It takes dirty hands. It takes a lot of late nights in the machine shop and long days at the test track, working it out as a team."
The NASA Great Moonbuggy Race is organized annually by the Academic Affairs Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. It is sponsored by the Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center has hosted the event since 1996. Click to Learn more about the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race
They are referring to the wheels on the lightweight, human-powered"moonbuggies" designed, built and tested since 1993-94 by about 10,000 high-school- and college-aged students who have participated in the Great Moonbuggy Race.
Each spring, scores of students register for the race and travel to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville to represent their schools, their youth organizations, their hometowns large and small, or even countries half a world away. They compare inventive buggy designs, meet NASA team members, and spend two grueling days demonstrating can-do spirit and teamwork as they tackle a rocky, obstacle-strewn "lunar" race course. All of this is done in pursuit of the educational challenge and the victory of problem-solving, as well as pride in accomplishment, trophies and, yes, good old-fashioned bragging rights.
The race is held each spring at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.
This year, roughly 100 registered student teams from 33 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico and Russia are working feverishly to complete this year's crop of buggies and raise the funds to make the trip.
NASA engineer Mike Selby was a student racer for the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1995 and 1996. He and his teammates those years won second and first place, respectively. Selby graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and went right to work for NASA. He has been a race volunteer ever since -- one of hundreds from Marshall who come out to help -- and for the past several years has served as head timekeeper. He considers it payback.
For two decades, NASA has sought to capture new generations in similar fashion."Only about 5 percent of students can get really excited about cracking open textbooks," Randall says. "For the rest, it takes something more. It takes passion. It takes dirty hands. It takes a lot of late nights in the machine shop and long days at the test track, working it out as a team."
The NASA Great Moonbuggy Race is organized annually by the Academic Affairs Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. It is sponsored by the Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center has hosted the event since 1996. Click to Learn more about the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race