The Great Moonbuggy Race, held annually in April, gives high school, undergraduate and graduate students from around the world an opportunity to apply engineering skills and develop team spirit in an activity that will enhance awareness about human exploration and development of space. Moonbuggies are built from the students' own design, recreating the lunar experience of the Apollo astronauts and looking ahead to further human exploration of the solar system. Two-person crews, one male and one female, assemble their collapsible vehicles, receive a safety inspection and power their vehicles along a simulated lunar terrain obstacle course. Prizes are awarded for originality of design and quickest traversal of the lunar course. Registration closes February 1, 2011.

Moon Work Design Contest Offers NASA Internships to Winners
Talented engineering students who have ideas on how future explorers might live on the moon could find themselves working at NASA as paid interns.

The NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, the Exploration Technology Development Program, and the Advanced Planning and Partnership Office at Langley Research Center encourage college students to get involved with NASA's return to the Moon by helping to design the tools and instrument pages needed for the next generation manned moon rover. Student projects will tackle real problems required for a successful manned lunar mission.

UPDATE! Registration is now open for the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition.

NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is accepting proposals from teams of undergraduate and graduate students for the inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition. The event will be held at the Astronaut Hall of Fame near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., May 23-28, 2011. Participants in the competition will design and build excavation systems that could be used for future lunar exploration. Teams will test their designs in a "head to head" challenge to see which design can excavate the most simulated lunar regolith, or dirt, over a specific timeframe. The competition also involves submittal of a systems engineering paper, as well as an educational outreach project.

Our return to the Moon encompasses many engineering challenges, from outpost and station infrastructure, to lunar resource utilization, to lunar sampling, to public engagement. The Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL), sponsored by NASA, is a design project competition for teams of undergraduate or graduate engineering students. Available funds support research expenses, registration.  Winning teams participate in a conference.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics sponsors annual design competition for teams of 3 to 10 undergraduate students. Solve real-world problems in the field of aerospace.

NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate’s (ESMD) Higher Education Project, in partnership with the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, offers one-stop shopping for Senior Design Challenges that can be integrated into university senior engineering design courses.  ESMD-related design projects are identified each year. Funds can be used to support student senior engineering design projects (i.e. to buy materials, build prototypes, etc.) or to bring in subject matter experts to consult with the class.  Interested individuals should contact the local Space Grant program for more information. Many of the opportunities are related to lunar exploration.

The NASA University Student Launch Initiative is a competition that challenges university-level students to design, build and fly a reusable rocket with scientific payload to one mile in altitude.

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