Moonbuggy Project
Challenge: Construct and race a collapsible tandem human powered vehicle across simulated moon terrain
As founder and president of my high school's Moonbuggy team, I led the efforts to become the first Canadian high school to race in NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race. The race challenged student teams to design, build, and race custom 'buggies' on simulated moon terrain. Having overcome all the odds against the team, we were thrilled to placed 2nd in the rookie division.
Chronological slideshow of the project
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Design objectives:
1. Easy to construct
2. Mechanically reliable
3. Inexpensive to construct
This project was truly an engineering challenge because we initially operated on a thin budget ($500 for parts and materials) and many members of the team had little to no experience with metalworking and fabrication, so the design had to be both complexity and time sensitive. This accounts for objectives 1 and 3.
The race course simulated moon terrain. It involved aggressive features like dirt ridges and gravel pits, which broke or stalled many buggies in past races, so it was critical to design a mechanically reliable vehicle.
Many concepts were explored before reaching the final design. We began with browsing through pictures of buggies from past competitions and noted positive features from each. Then, we integrated those into a design that was easy to construct and mechanically reliable.
The vehicle was constructed completely in-house using primarily hand tools to work with steel. This was my first real hands-on experience in my engineering career.
The buggy features a collapsible three-wheeled rear-driven design with back-to-back rider layout, as planned in the original drawings. This vehicle is a prime example of engineering iteration because many adaptations had to be made just to make the vehicle function, such as the crank arm beam of the forward facing rider.
This project was the gateway to my engineering career. It introduced me to mechanical design, fabrication, it allowed me to see a project from beginning to end. and also showed me the importance of iteration.
