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ASU Moon Devils
Publication Date: Spring/Summer 1996
There would have been no delay on the actual lunar surface, because the moon has no atmosphere. But Huntsville, Ala. has plenty of weather.
As a result, a team of ASU undergraduate students waited out a tornado warning and heavy rains to compete in the Third Annual Great Moon Buggy Race in April 1996 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Supported by the ASU Aerospace Research Center, the team's Moon Devil II placed second in the race and captured the Best Overall Design Award.
The race involved 19 moon buggies representing 10 universities and three high schools. Ten buggies finished the race, which followed a three-quarter-mile course that wound through the space center's Shuttle Park and Rocket Park. A portion of the course simulated lunar terrain.
Each team's human-powered buggy was piloted by one male and one female student. The race began with assembly of the vehicles from a storage area no larger than a 4-foot cube. The Moon Devil II team clocked a combined assembly and race time of 7 minutes, 31 seconds. The winning team from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, finished in a combined time of 6 minutes, 43 seconds.
ASU's moon buggy team members include mechanical and aerospace engineering majors Paul Dulgov, Karen Linda, Christian Lenz, Summer Locke, Chris Estevez, Duane Whitcraft, and civil engineering major Francis Busch.