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a NASA competition combining the

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strength of an athlete with the mind of

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a scientist is sweet

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the world and it could lead students on

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it's early April at the US Space and

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Rocket Center in Huntsville Alabama home

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to Space Camp the visitor center for

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NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and

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an extensive museum about America's

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history of space exploration but for one

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special spring weekend it becomes a

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grueling half-mile track where a

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thousand of the world's future engineers

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gather to race against the clock in

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machines of their own design welcome to

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the NASA great moon buggy race work on

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this project began at least six months

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earlier at the beginning of the school

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year as students designed built and

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tested a sturdy collapsible lightweight

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vehicle addressing many of the same

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engineering challenges overcome by

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nasa's lunar rover development team at

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the marshall center in the late 1960s

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it's a lot of work definitely a lot of

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researching figuring out angles and

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figuring out just how everything's going

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to come together and then just reveal a

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lot of time it's like machining parts

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and actually it was really cool

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dedicated teams of students build their

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vehicles using trail bike tires aluminum

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composite metal struts drive trains

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gears suspension steering and braking

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systems they find or build themselves

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from high tech to all made in creating

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the annual NASA great moon buggy race

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the goal was to engage America's next

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generation of scientists engineers and

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explorers the agency wanted to encourage

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students to study science math

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engineering and technology since that

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first race in 1994 with just a handful

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of teams the event now includes separate

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high school and college divisions more

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than a thousand students and

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institutions from around the world our

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drivers spend much time riding their

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bicycles I think almost every day from

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the moment that we thought about going

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coming here to Hanceville since you are

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from a non engineering background we

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didn't had access to workshop a pretty

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good workshop so that was a biggest

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challenge because we had great ideas in

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in our mind but we needed machines to do

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that these students take what they learn

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in the classroom on the drafting table

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and in the machine shop and apply it in

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a real-world setting too many building

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the moon buggy is accomplishment enough

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but the true test is how well it runs on

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the simulated lunar obstacle course in

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Huntsville just a few short miles from

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where the original lunar Rovers were

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tested we've gone down flights of stairs

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you know ditches parking lot speed bumps

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everything just beat it as hard as

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possible you know break it at home that

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way we can fix it and make it better

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rather to get here and break it and just

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be out of the time a pair of students

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one male one female steer and provide

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the power to drive their creation around

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this special track filled with serious

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obstacles one may find on the moon this

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the long history of this event proves

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that running a clean race is nearly

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impossible teams can be penalized if

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something falls off their buggy during

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the race if they veer off the track or

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if they have to get off their buggy to

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get it moving again and sometimes moon

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buggies on the track simply can't finish

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in the allotted time but teams have a

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second chance to make repairs and

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improve their times because there is a

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second one of the race the next day even

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then many teams will just have to take

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pride in the fact that they completed

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the project and made the journey to

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Huntsville even if they had to carry

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their budget across the finish line I

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made it at the top of the hill we're

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going down the other side and then our

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drive chain just shattered right in

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front of us so i was looking at

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Stephanie and I said go let's go and

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push it

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and as we were getting tired she's like

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let's go to the end that's good NASA and

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the major sponsors for the events

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provide prizes in nearly a dozen

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different categories including best

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rookie team and best safety design but

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the grand prize in each division goes to

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the team with the fastest time and the

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fewest penalties even if a team doesn't

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come home with a trophy the experience

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is a reward unto itself the lessons

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learned as a member of a team the chest

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to design build and race a vehicle they

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created and applying those math science

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and technical skills in a down-to-earth

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hands-on competition the design this

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year it was a whole team effort

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everybody had their own ideas we changed

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our steering mechanism from last year

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and we changed the seating around a

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little bit so that we can have a little

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bit more support when we're trying to

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peddle that extra right the NASA great

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moon buggy race brings the excitement of

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space exploration within reach of these

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students while encouraging knowledge of

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science technology engineering and math

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that could carry them to other worlds

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for more information on the NASA great

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moon buggy race including how to qualify