LOCKHEED MARTIN EXPLORER SCOUTS TO TEST MOONBUGGIES AT MICHOUD
NEW ORLEANS, LA., 28-MAR-01 -- Local high school and college students will put specially-designed “moonbuggies” through a series of time trials from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31 as they prepare for the “Great Moonbuggy Race,” a NASA-sponsored national competition. The time trials will take place at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, where Lockheed Martin designs and builds the Space Shuttle External Tank.
For the past six months, the students representing Engineering Explorer Post 314 have invested their sweat equity in designing, analyzing and building three moonbuggies with similarities to those used by the Apollo lunar rover team some 30 years ago. Each moonbuggy is pedal-driven by two team members – one male and one female – and must fold up into a space no more than 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 4 feet long to simulate the original moonbuggy designs.
On Saturday, the scouts will road test their moonbuggies in preparation for the competition scheduled April 6-7 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Last year, the New Orleans-based high school team – in its first year of competition – won the award for best design presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Reporters and photographers who wish to cover the time trials on Saturday can contact Harry Wadsworth at (504) 257-0094 or Marion LaNasa at (504) 257-1307 by Friday, March 30 to arrange for weekend credentials. Lockheed Martin has sponsored the Engineering Explorer Post since its inception in 1996.
