Great Moonbuggy Race

[SpaceCanada]

Thanks for posting the live feed on the home page, Vincent!

I 've been watching for a while and the whole thing looks like a lot of fun. I wish I knew about this in technical school and had our class make a submission. After all, we did design bicycles that could work on snow. I digress.

Some questions popped up in my head whilst watching the feed:

1. Is it really cold in Huntsville? Everyone is wearing sweaters and jackets, etc. I'm just about ready to wear shorts up here. (+5C, 41F)

2. Why do the participants occasionally push their buggy with their arms instead of pedaling with their feet? Is this part of their design or is part of the course dictated that you must propel yourself using your arms? Curious.

3. Are there penalties if you have to get out of your buggy and push it over an obstacle? I've seen at least one get pretty stuck.

Anyway, just curious. I found some information on the buggy website but maybe I didn't dig deep enough to get all the rules and stuff. Again, it looks like a realyl fun experience, or even a fun event to be a spectator for. Neat!

(The view is pretty good too... under the Saturn 1B, around the LEM, over where teh Saturn V used to be, etc.

[Vincent]

1. This time of year, some days are cold, some are warm. You can need your heater and AC in the same day!

2. Sometimes a buggy can get stuck in an obstacle, and powering too hard with pedals will just stretch or break a chain. "Wheelchairing" it can get a stuck buggy safely unstuck.

3. Getting out of your buggy constitutes a "Ground Touch Penalty" for the team. The penalty is one minute added to their time. The other penalty is an obstacle avoidance penalty, also worth one minute. Generally the only time this one is assessed is if a team's buggy has broken down and they're pushing through the remaining obstacles (in which case, each obstacle pushed through will incur a 2 minute penalty).

[gt0163c]

1. Is it really cold in Huntsville? Everyone is wearing sweaters and jackets, etc. I'm just about ready to wear shorts up here. (+5C, 41F)

Cold is relative. For somewhere like Huntsville, the "Deep South", Everyone would be bundled up if it was 41F.
Where I am, in North Texas, it's considered "cold" until the temperature hits about 70F. Then it's "nice" until about 85F when it turns "warm". "Hot" probably starts about 95ish, if it's kinda humid; higher if it's drier. We'll get at least 20 days over 100 degrees during most summers. 105+ isn't terribly uncommon and we can go a month or three without seeing overnight lows below the upper 70s. Oh how I miss living in north during those months.

[street]

It is the tradition on Moonbuggy Race weekend that it start out cold and rainy. This year was no exception. Friday was drizzly with a high around 60. Saturday was gorgeous. It started out in the high 40s, but with the sunshine it warmed up to the low 70s.