Southern engineers match moonbuggy skills with international teams

The Southern University Moonbuggy riders SU engineering student John Alston and Scotlandville Magnet High School student Charlene Reams maneuver their craft through an obstacle course at the 15th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race sponsored by NASA.

Senior design students from Southern University's Mechanical Engineering Department finished in eight place at the 15th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race hosted by NASA on April 4-5 in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Twenty-three teams from around the global were represented including students from India, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

The students were required to design and build a human-powered vehicle to address a series of engineering problems that were similar to the problems faced by the original Moonbuggy team. The vehicle was required to carry one female and one male student over a half-mile simulated terrain course that included "craters", rocks "lava" ridges, inclines and "lunar" soil.

The Southern University team included Casey Allen, Daniel Durocher, Daniel Rodriguez, David Benjamin, John Alston, and John Stewart and advisor Edgar R. Blevins. The absence of a female on the team meant that the team had to recruit a female rider (Charlene Reams) from the Scotlandville Magnet High School team which competed in the high school division of the competition.

This was Southern University's second year in the competition and plans are being made to return next year. Assisting with the construction of the project was the mechanical engineering lab technician Rory Nettles. Funding for this project was provided by the College of Engineering and a Louisiana Space Consortium grant.

For more information, contact Edgar Blevins, 771,4736, or visit the Moon Buggy project site.