HUNTSVILLE AL- The
20th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race ® will be held this Friday and
Saturday, starting at 7:30am in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space &
Rocket Center. Students are required to design a vehicle that addresses a
series of engineering problems that are similar to problems faced by the
original Moonbuggy team. Nearly 600 students world-wide are arriving to compete
in Huntsville this week.
Each Moonbuggy will
be human powered and carry two students, one female and one male, over a
half-mile simulated lunar terrain course including "craters", rocks,"lava" ridges, inclines and "lunar" soil.
The team from the University of Alabama in Huntsville took top prize in the college division of NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race 2012 with a time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds. (NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given)
Moonbuggy entries are expected to be of "proof-of-concept" and engineering test model nature, rather than final production models. Each student team of six members is responsible for building their own buggy, and the course drivers, who are chosen from each team, must also be builders of the vehicle.
Each team is permitted two runs of the terrain course, and the shortest course time will be added to the assembly time for the final total event time.
Arab High School Team 1 from Arab, Ala., placed third in the high school division of the 19th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race with a time of 3 minutes and 30 seconds. (NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given)
Prizes-Prizes will be awarded to the top three winning teams in both the High School Division and College Division. Awards will be for the six registered team members and their faculty/instructor advisor. Additional awards will be given for: Featherweight Award (replaces Most Unique), Most Improved,Rookie Award,Best Report Award , AIAA Telemetry/Electronics Award, and the System Safety Award. Another honor and the Neil Armstrong Best Design Award.
NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race has been hosted by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center since 1996. The race is sponsored by NASA's Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. Major corporate sponsors are Lockheed Martin Corp., The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Jacobs Engineering ESTS Group, all with operations in Huntsville. http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov/index.html