Racers … get ready!
Moonbuggy registration begins

November 24, 2008 — You can’t quite call it NASCAR. But it still is exciting. Each year, NASA challenges students in high schools and colleges across the country and the world to design and build lightweight, human-powered moonbuggies and then race them for prizes. To win, students must put their own spin on the historic lunar rovers that carried Americans across the surface of the moon during the Apollo era. But you can’t win if you don’t enter. Registration is now open until February 1 for NASA's 16th annual Great Moonbuggy Race, taking place April 3-4, 2009, in Huntsville, Alabama. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center hosts the two-day event, turning its grounds into a course that includes a half mile of hills, rocks, inclines and craters to simulate the lunar surface. Schools may register up to two moonbuggies and teams each year. 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. Each Moonbuggy will be human powered and carry two students, one female and one male. Moonbuggy entries are expected to be of "proof-of-concept" and engineering test model nature. Each student team of six members must build their own buggy, and the course drivers, who are chosen from each team, must also be builders of the vehicle. For complete rules, moonbuggy design parameters and registration, click here. High school teams will compete on April 3, while college teams will race on April 4. Prizes are awarded to the three teams in each division that finish with the fastest race times. NASA and industry sponsors also present awards for innovative buggy design, team spirit, best newcomer and other achievements. Participation in the race has increased annually from just eight college teams in 1994 to 46 high school and college teams in 2008, with hundreds of students coming from 17 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, India and Germany to participate.

Student racers from Erie High School Team II in Erie, Kansas, took first place in the high school division of NASA's 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race, held April 4, 2008. Photo credit: NASA/MSFC Student racers from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana, speed to victory in the 2008 college division of NASA's 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race. Photo credit: NASA/MSFC

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