UNH'S "LEAN AND MEAN" MOONBUGGY TAKES FOURTH PLACE IN NASA CONTEST

DURHAM, N.H.-- A "moonbuggy" designed and built by mechanical engineering students from the University of New Hampshire has taken fourth place in NASA's 7th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race.

"We had a good showing, we received many compliments on our original design," says UNH team member Rob Lamontagne of Rochester, "and we had the coolest crash." On its second run through the race course, UNH won the Crash and Burn Award for the most entertaining mishap when the vehicle flipped on its side and was righted by its two drivers, only to have a wheel fall off moments later.

The Great Moonbuggy Race 2000

Nearly 30 colleges and universities participated in the national event, which challenges students to create a lightweight human-powered vehicle that addresses some of the same constraints that faced the builders of NASA's lunar rover. After spending eight months on the project, a team of five UNH seniors participated in the competition at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 8. UNH students also entered the contest in 1994, when they took first place.

In Alabama, two members from each team had to carry their disassembled vehicle to the starting line in a box, assemble it as rapidly as possible, and then pedal furiously in a half-mile race over rough terrain designed to simulate a moonscape, complete with craters up to three feet high. The UNH vehicle, driven by Lindsay Currier of Sunapee and Nate Dowd of West Groton, Massachusetts, ran the course in five minutes and 36 seconds.

The UNH Buggy

In looking back over the project, Lamontagne noted that the team had met all their original design objectives. "We set out to build something simple," he says. "A lean and mean buggy." Weighing in at about 85 pounds, the UNH buggy was far lighter than the others, which ranged from about 120 to 350 pounds. The UNH design was also unusual in its use of three wheels. There were a few other entries with three wheels, but all were built in a traditional tricycle design. The UNH buggy had a third wheel in the back, steered with a lever similar to a tiller. The design created quite a stir, Lamontagne says. "You'd hear people saying things like, 'Did you see New Hampshire?'"

Other members of the UNH team are team leader Matt Borsa of Pelham and Ryan Carroll of Salem. The team was advised by Todd Gross, professor of mechanical engineering.

The Sponsors

In addition to funding from the university, the project received financial assistance from the following businesses: FWM, Inc., of Hudson; Distrigas (Cabot) Corporation of Boston; Inside Accent of Salem; Parker Hannafin, Nichols Aircraft Division, of Ayer, Massachusetts; Bicycle Bob's of Portsmouth; Organic Engines of Tallahassee, Florida; and Century 21, Allard and Merrill of Salem.

by Virginia Stuart
UNH Science Writer