For Release: April 7, 2000 Jerry Berg Media Relations Department (256) 544-0034 Jerry.Berg@msfc.nasa.gov /centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/ RELEASE: 00-126

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Team From Pittsburg, Kan., Powers to Top of High School Division at NASA’s 7^th Annual ‘Great Moonbuggy Race’

A team from Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Kan., rode to victory today in the high school division of NASA’s 7^th annual Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Ala.

The Pittsburg team bested more than a dozen other high schools to earn a weekend trip to Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.

New Century Technology High School from Huntsville, Ala., finished second, while Carthage High School of Carthage, Mo., placed third. Those teams received plaques, and all three winning teams received fleece jackets bearing the Great Moonbuggy Race logo. The award for best moonbuggy design went to the Orleans Parish Area Schools team from New Orleans.

The competition is inspired by the actual lunar roving vehicle project, which was successfully accomplished by the Marshall Center in the 1960s and 1970s. The race challenges students to design and build a human-powered vehicle so they will learn how to deal with real-world engineering problems -- similar to those faced by the original Marshall Center moonbuggy team.

During the race, vehicles powered by two team members, one male and one female, race one at a time over a half-mile obstacle course of simulated moonscape terrain.

The event is sponsored by the Marshall Center, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Competing high school teams also included Autauga County Technology Center in Prattville, Ala.; Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, Calif.; Graff Career Center in Springfield, Mo.; Lake Monroe Christian Academy in Sanford, Fla.; Monterey (La.) High School; UniTec Career Center in Farmington, Mo; and W.T. Clarke High School in Westbury, N.Y.

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