NSIT Moonbuggy

 

Our team competing at the U.S. Space & Rocket Centre, April 2009

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

The event was started by America’s renowned space agency NASA in an endeavour to make students from all over the world  address the engineering problems which were faced by the real moonbuggy team and to get valuable inputs from them which may be useful in future space expeditions.                                        

The event is very popular amongst technical institutes round the globe; in 2008 it had participation from around 70 teams from different countries. It was organised for the 16th time in 2009 and invites large scale participation from technical institutes.

NASA’s 16th annual Great Moonbuggy Race was held at Huntsville,Alabama,US in April, 2009 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Centre. The race course is designed in such a way so that teams get a feel of the problems faced in traversing moon’s surface, therefore they have to design their vehicle taking into consideration various hurdles and safety of the rider.


FEATURES OF MOONBUGGY

• Its size can be reduced to two-thirds of its total length in a very less time.

• Folding into a 64 cubic feet volume box.

• Shockers on each part for maximum stability and control.

• Flexible axle for better stability of vehicle on capabilities for making the buggy fit highly irregular terrain.

 

TECHNICAL DETAILS

 

• It's uniquely designed and developed in such a way that it can navigate all type of terrains on the moon surface.
• The design consists of 3 parts in which front and rear part absorbs all the shock keeping the middle part more stable.
• Middle part is designed in such a way so that it is capable of bearing most of the load by adding links at vital positions.
• Chassis is developed by 2 metals to obtain a balance between weight and strength.