{"id":14843,"date":"2010-04-15T08:10:50","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T08:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/puerto-rico-and-germany-sport-fastest-buggies-in-nasas-17th-annual-great-moonbuggy-race\/"},"modified":"2010-04-15T08:10:50","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T08:10:50","slug":"puerto-rico-and-germany-sport-fastest-buggies-in-nasas-17th-annual-great-moonbuggy-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/puerto-rico-and-germany-sport-fastest-buggies-in-nasas-17th-annual-great-moonbuggy-race.php","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico and Germany Sport Fastest Buggies in NASA’s 17th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Through flips and spills over a simulated moon surface, two veteran contenders finally found their time to shine in NASA’s 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race<\/span>. The team representing the International Space Education Institute of Leipzig, Germany, won the high school division; and racers from the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao took first place in the college division.
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The teams bested more than 70 teams from 18 states<\/span>, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India and Romania. More than 600 drivers, engineers and mechanics -- all students -- gathered with their team advisors and cheering sections to take part in the matchup of wits and wheels at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center <\/span>April 9-10 in Huntsville, Ala.<\/p>

The race is organized by NASA<\/a>'s Marshall Space Flight Center <\/span>in Huntsville. It challenges students to design, build and race lightweight, human-powered buggies that tackle many of the same engineering challenges dealt with by Apollo-era lunar rover developers at the Marshall Center<\/span> in the late 1960s.<\/p>

The International Space Education Institute<\/span>, known among moonbuggy racers as \"Team Germany<\/span>,\" has been a prominent contender in the competition since they debuted in 2007 as the German Space Education Institute. Their team this year included two Russian students, reflecting the school's expanded international scope.<\/p>

The University of Puerto Rico in Humacao<\/span> -- the only school in the world to enter a moonbuggy in every race since the event was founded in 1994 -- won the second-place prize in 2009, and finally took home first place in this, their 17th appearance.<\/p>

The winning teams posted the fastest vehicle assembly and race times in their divisions and received the fewest on-course penalties. The International Space Education<\/span> Institute finished the roughly half-mile course -- twisting curves, treacherous gravel pits and other obstacles simulating lunar surface conditions -- in just 3 minutes 37 seconds. The University of Puerto Rico at Humacao<\/span> posted a time of 4 minutes 18 seconds.
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View my blog's last three great articles...<\/span><\/p>