The Great Moonbuggy Races (Fall 2006)
On April 8, 2006, two teams from the University of Tennessee traversed the moon’s surface…at least, they traversed a simulated moon surface. “The Great Moonbuggy Race” was held at the Marshall Space Center in Hunstville, AL. Teams from all over the country, 17 in all, competed at the 13th annual Great Moonbuggy Race. The University of Tennessee brought two teams to the race.
Design and fabrication of the moonbuggies is part of a Senior Capstone Design project offered in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Each team consisted of six mechanical engineering seniors and two mechanical engineering juniors or sophomores. The project began at the beginning of the fall semester and ended at the end of the spring semester.
Moonbuggy Team Photo
(From Left to Right) Travis Cox, Rachel McCord, Lloyd Wheless, Aaron Havener, Kristen Davis, Dave Hubble, Tu Lee, Cody Corlew, Chris Nolen, Carlton Corbitt, Vu Nyugen, Dr. V. Naoumov, Keith Johnson, Adam Teg (Not Pictured: Todd Sorenson, Soumyo Dutta, Mike Saale)
This year’s teams focused their efforts on redesigning the previous year’s buggies. Using a limited budget and their own manpower, the teams worked feverishly to bring their creations to life. Team 1, which consisted of team members Kristen Davis (team leader), David Hubble, Keith Johnson, Cody Corlew, Vu Nyugen, Tu Lee, Adam Teg and Chris Nolen, focused their design efforts on frame stability, an improved drive system, and weight reduction. Team 2, which consisted of Lloyd Wheless (team leader), Rachel McCord, Todd Sorenson, Aaron Havener, Travis Cox, Carlton Corbitt, Soumyo Dutta, and Mike Saale, focused their efforts on an improved drive system, weight reduction, and new wheel attachments.
The design efforts over the past year paid off for the UT teams. Team 1 finished 8th in the Great Moonbuggy Race with a final time of 12 minutes and 42 seconds. Team 1 also received an honorable mention award called the Dust Award, which recognized their ability to traverse through the courses most difficult obstacle, the Sand Pit.
Team 2 tied for 3rd in the Great Moonbuggy Race with a final time of 8 minutes and 44 seconds. The team also won the Most Improved Buggy Award, improving from the previous year’s time by approximately 50 percent. The team also received the honorable mention Dust Award.The teams would like to thank their Senior Design professor, Dr. Viatcheslav Naoumov, for all his hard work over the past year. Thanks also goes to the UT Machine Shop, the Tennessee Space Consortium (Dr. Laurence Taylor) Zero Max® for their support of this year’s teams. Special thanks to the MABE department and Dr. Hamel for the support and assistance!
Congratulations to both teams for their accomplishments in this year’s race!
