NASA Great Moonbuggy Race
Goes Out Of This World
Competitors from
around the world came to Huntsville for the
15th Annual NASA
Great Moonbuggy Race
Photo Courtesy of Shelton Beaird
April 8, 2008
The 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race, was held April 4-5 at the
U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., more than 60
high school and college teams competed in the contest to propel
wheeled lunar rovers of their own design around a simulated
moonscape. Nearly 400 students from 17 states, Puerto Rico,
Canada, India and Germany were part of the competition.
Teams can include up to
six students and a teacher/mentor. Teams are responsible for
designing, building and testing their lightweight moonbuggys.
All the rovers must be based on NASA’s original lunar vehicles,
first driven on the moon’s surface during the Apollo 15 moon
mission in 1971.
Photo courtesy Shelton Beaird
Top prizes are awarded to the three teams in the
high school division and three in the college divisions that
post the best assembly-and-race times. In the high school
division, the first-place team receives a trophy from the
Marshall Center and a one-week trip to the Advanced Space
Academy at the Space & Rocket Center, courtesy of ATK Launch
Systems and Jacobs Technology. In the college and university
division, the first-place team receives a trophy from the
Marshall Center and $5,700 in cash from Northrop Grumman, Inc.
Marshall also gives commemorative plaques to the second and
third-place teams in the high school and college divisions, and
presents each racer on the top three teams in both divisions a
medallion and certificate. All members of the top three teams in
both divisions also receive a duffel bag from United Space
Alliance. All participating moonbuggy teams receive a
certificate and plaque from Science Applications International
Corp. The Marshall Center’s Engineering Directorate each year
awards a plaque for the Frank Joe Sexton Memorial Pit Crew Award
to the team whose engineering ingenuity, resourcefulness and
teamwork most successfully overcomes race-day obstacles.
University of Evansville team took 1st Place in
college division
Photo courtesy of NASA
The University of
Evansville, Evansville, Indiana won 1st place in the college
competition held Saturday, April 5.. Finishing in the top
three along with Evansville were second-place winners from
Murray State University in Murray, Ky., and third-place racers
representing Canada's Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.
The special "Pits Crew
Award" for ingenuity and persistence in overcoming problems
during the race was won by the team from Ohio State University
in Columbus, which also earned the 2008 "Rookie Award" for the
fastest course completion time among newcomers. The "Most
Improved" award went to competitors from the University of
Wyoming in Laramie.
Erie Kansas team claims 1st Place in high school
competition
Photo courtesy of NASA
In the high school
competition, held Friday April 4, the Erie, Kansas High Team II
won the high school division. Huntsville Institute Team II
finished in second place this year; Team I took third place.
The high school version
of the "Pits Crew Award" was won by the only home-schooled race
team in the 2008 competition, Niles Homeschool Hub in Niles,
Mich. Alexandria High School in Alexandria, Ala., was awarded
"Most Unique Buggy" in the high school division. NASA's "Safety
Systems Award" for best safeguarding buggy drivers was presented
to the German Space Education Institute in Leipzig, Germany.
Photo courtesy Shelton Beaird
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