Four UW students are heading to Alabama this weekend for the annual NASA moonbuggy race. They’ll be racing a contraption they designed and built, which is meant to resemble a lunar rover. The racecourse mimics the moon, with craters and other obstacles.
Team member Davis Fay says UW’s moonbuggies in past years have had some spectacular crashes, so his team’s goal this year is to finish the course upright – at least for the first round of racing.
“You get two runs, and our strategy for the first one is just … finish the course and don’t break anything,” Fay said. “And then the second day we can just go all out.”
Fay says it’s tough to build a moonbuggy that’s both fast and stable. But Diedre Williams with NASA says that’s the point.
“It’s just a good introduction to engineering challenges,” she said, adding that the race is also supposed to get students interested in space-related engineering careers.
The race is April 13 and 14.
UW students to race moonbuggies
