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April
7, 2008: Not one of the participants in NASA's 2008
Great Moonbuggy Race was old enough to have seen the 1969
movie, Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies.
Nevertheless, the racers all looked like stars of that film
as they careened about the simulated lunar terrain race course
in a motley variety of strange vehicles.
These
high school and college students, representing 20 states,
Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany and India, were having a blast
in their home-made moonbuggies. They were spinning out in
"moondust" and rumbling over "craters"
at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
on April 4th and 5th, competing to traverse the 0.7-mile course
faster than any other team.
Above:
These students from Canada's Carleton University in Ottawa,
Ontario, scored a third-place win in the college division
of NASA's 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race. [More]
The
two-person crews had to first assemble their odd conveyances
as part of the race before setting off from the starting line
and competing against the clock on a solo run. Course challenges
included obstacles like craters, rocks, hardened lava ridges,
inclines, lunar soil and -- one thing never found on the moon
-- a gullywasher of a rainstorm. Amazingly, most of the vehicles
held up well enough to finish their runs, and a few of the
crews actually did so with no penalties at all, whizzing across
sandpits and the like as adeptly as the drivers in that 1969
movie they never saw.
While
awaiting their turns on the track, crews worked on their buggies
out in the parking lot. A Fairhope, Alabama, team was elevating
the use of duct tape to high art, securing all the required
parts (simulated radios, simulated cameras, simulated batteries,
etc.) in place.
"Our
buggy isn't as fancy as some of the others, but we're proud
of it," said one of the Fairhope crewmembers: photo.
Indeed, his buggy went on to make a respectable run, all in
one piece. (Is it any wonder?)
Dr.
Paul Shiue, faculty advisor for the Memphis, Tennessee, Christian
Brothers University crew, was on hand to support his team.
He laughingly called duct tape their "best engineering
tool."
Several
teams based their buggies on junk yard parts, resulting in
(predictably) tough vehicles: "One of the high school
teams badly bent both rims on one side of their buggy in a
leap over obstacle #3, then blew out the intertube with a
bang on one of those wheels a few obstacles later," describes
onlooker and NASA physicist Dennis Gallagher. Despite all
that, "they managed to finish the race."
 Right:
A pair of drivers from Puerto Rico High School in Fajardo,
PR, endure a fearsome, buggy-flipping crash. The two racers
recovered quickly enough to post the fastest race time among
competition newcomers, earning them the 2008 "Rookie
Award." [More]
"Meanwhile,
a team from India made do without critical parts that never
arrived in a lost luggage bag," he continues. "They
also forgot their safety helmets, goggles, and gloves, but
another team gave them theirs. One of the event highlights
is how teams are willing to share their knowledge, tools and
parts."
Cooperation,
seat-of-the pants ingenuity and serious engineering know-how
were on full display--just as they were 30+ years ago when
NASA engineers created the original Lunar Roving Vehicle for
the Apollo program.
The
moonbuggy of that era had to travel in breathtaking vacuum
across a dusty, bumpy landscape, in temperatures exceeding
200 degrees Fahrenheit with very little gravity (1/6 g) to
hold it down. Weighing only about 450 pounds on Earth, or
just 75 pounds on the Moon, the moonbuggy could carry up to
1000 Earth-pounds -- more than twice its own weight. As if
that wasn't enough, it also had to fit in the tight confines
of the lunar lander. Designers made it fold up (a bit like
a Transformer toy) for the voyage to the moon and easily unfold
for adventure when the lander descended to the lunar surface.
All in all, the
original moonbuggy was a nice little ride!
Here
on Earth, in the 2008 Great Moonbuggy Race, all the "daring
young" men and women, winners and losers alike, seemed
to have fun, and their vehicles were remarkably well constructed.
Erie
High School Team II from Erie, Kansas, won the high school
race, charging through the course in a mere 3 minutes and
17 seconds. The college winner was Evansville University from
Evansville, Indiana, with an impressive time of 4 minutes
and 25 seconds.
And
they didn't even use much duct tape.
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Author: Dauna Coulter
| Editor:
Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
| more
race results |
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Great
Moonbuggy Race
home page
High
School Division
First
Place - Erie High School Team II, Erie, Kansas
Second
Place - Huntsville Center for Technology Team
II, Huntsville, Alabama
Third
Place - Huntsville Center for Technology Team
I, Huntsville, Alabama
First
Place Best Design - Erie High School Team I,
Erie, Kansas
Second
Place Best Design, and Best Spirit - Scotlandville
Magnet High School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Pits
Crew Award for ingenuity and persistence in
overcoming challenges - Niles Homeschool Hub in Niles,
Michigan
Most
Unique Buggy - Alexandria High School, Alexandria,
Alabama
Safety
Systems Award for best safeguarding moonbuggy
drivers - German Space Education Institute, Leipzig,
Germany
Rookie
Award for fastest time among newcomers to the
race - Puerto Rico High School, Fajardo, Puerto Rico
Most
Improved - Lima Senior High School Team II,
Lima, Ohio
Other
high school participants:
Saks
High School, Anniston, Alabama
East Limestone High School, Athens, Alabama
Fairhope High School (two teams), Fairhope, Alabama
Elk Valley High School, Longton, Kansas
Carlisle County High School, Bardwell, Kentucky
Calloway County High School, Murray, Kentucky
Murray High School (two teams), Murray, Kentucky
Pinewood Preparatory School, Summerville, North Carolina
Soddy-Daisy High School, Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee
College
Division
First
Place - Evansville University, Evansville,
Indiana
Second Place - Murray State University,
Murray, Kentucky
Third
Place - Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Most
Original Design - Delhi College Engineering
Team I, Delhi, India
Best
Design - Pittsburg State University, Pittsburgh,
Kansas
Best
Spirit- University of Central Florida, Orlando,
Florida
Pits
Crew Award for ingenuity and persistence in
overcoming challenges - Ohio State University, Columbus,
Ohio
Most
Unique Buggy – Middle Tennessee State University
Team I, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Safety
Systems Award for best safeguarding moonbuggy
drivers – Delhi College of Engineering Team II, Delhi,
India, and Middle Tennessee State University Team I,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Rookie
Award for fastest time among newcomers to the
race – Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Most
Improved –University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
"Crash
and Burn" prize for the racers that endure
the most spectacular vehicle breakdown - Middle Tennessee
State's Team I
Other
college and university participants:
Purdue
University Calumet, Hammond, Indiana
Alabama
A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama
University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio
Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma
University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee
Christian Brothers University (two teams), Memphis,
Tennessee
a second team from Middle Tennessee State University,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
Sponsors
of NASA's 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race (2008):
NASA's
Space Operations Mission Directorate, Northrop Grumman
Corp., Boeing Company, and Teledyne Brown Engineering
(all of Huntsville). Other contributors include the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics;
ATK Launch Systems, Inc.; CBS-TV affiliate WHNT (Ch.
19); Jacobs Engineering Science Technical Service Group;
Stanley Associates; Science Applications International
Corp.; the Tennessee Valley chapter of the System Safety
Society Inc.; the United Space Alliance, LLC; and the
U.S. Space & Rocket Center; ITT Corporation of Huntsville,
Alabama.
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