Sped Past 23 Teams To Take College Division Bragging Rights

On Sunday, NASA told ANN the student innovators from the University of Evansville in Evansville, IN sped past 23 teams from around the globe to win the college division of NASA's 15th annual Great Moonbuggy Race today at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL.

The Evansville team posted the day's fastest race time, completing the harrowing course -- which simulates surface conditions found on the moon -- in just four minutes and 25 seconds.

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.

NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race is inspired by the original lunar rover designed by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. A hardy, lightweight exploration vehicle, the first rover trundled across the moon's surface during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, and continued to chart new lunar territory during two subsequent Apollo lunar missions.

Student racers faced challenges similar to those overcome by Apollo-era rover engineers. Last October, the student teams began designing their own buggies, capable of withstanding the challenges of the course: craters, gullies and ridges made of plywood and tires and covered with a realistic layer of gravel and sand.

The Marshall Center presented the first-place team with a trophy depicting NASA's original lunar rover, and gave plaques and certificates to the two runners-up. The first-place team also received $5,700 in cash from Northrop Grumman Corp. Individuals on all three winning teams received commemorative medals and other prizes.

As ANN reported Sunday, a team of students from Erie High School in Erie, KS took first place in the high school divison of the contest.

"Once again, we're amazed and inspired by the ingenuity and energy of our participating teams," said Tammy Rowan, manager of the Marshall Center's Academic Affairs Office, which organizes the moonbuggy race each year. "This race is a great example of how NASA's educational initiatives can inspire and motivate new generations to carry on the nation's journey of discovery, to the moon and onward into the solar system."

"We look forward to 2009 and the next edition of NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race," Rowan added. "We expect many of these teams back -- bringing them another step toward becoming the professional scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technologists of tomorrow."

FMI: www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news