Left: Lindsay Los and Chris Polowick man the Carleton engineering Moonbuggy. Right: Chris Polowick shows his hand, where a finger was partially severed when trying to fix the buggy ( Photo: C.J. Roussakis )
Despite a severed fingertip and a broken moonbuggy, a team of Carleton engineering students are calling their trip to NASA’s 16th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race a success.
Seven students travelled to the U.S. Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Ala., on April 3 to race a pedal-powered buggy they designed and built along a course that simulates the surface of the moon.
The team finished 12th out of 19 teams that posted a valid race time, according to their website. The team from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., won the college division and 13 teams did not complete the course.
“The team carried ourselves through the competition better than I could have ever expected,” said Curtis Parks, team leader and third-year mechanical engineering student.
Moonbuggies are modelled after the lunar rover and must be human powered, begin the race folded into a four-by-four-by-four-foot box and able to be carried 20 feet by the two passengers.
Chris Polowick, a third-year aerospace engineering student, was injured 10 meters into the race during Carleton’s first run when a sprocket on their buggy fell off the vehicle. The tip of his left middle finger was severed by a moving part when he reached under the buggy while trying to fix the drive train.
“It hurt, but I didn’t realize it was that bad,” he said. “But as the race was continuing on it was really bleeding a lot and I realized there was something moving around in the tip of my glove.”
Hurt and unable to help his partner pedal the buggy, Polowick urged Lindsay Los, his co-pilot and a third-year mechanical engineering student, to keep going but he eventually left the track and went to the hospital. After a doctor bandaged his wound, he returned to his team, eager to race the next day.
Parks said both teammates and race officials didn’t want Polowick to ride again but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He duct taped a thick welding glove to his hand for protection and pedalled with Los over the finish line.
Teams of high school and post-secondary students from 20 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, India, Romania and Germany raced along an 800-meter course of hills, gravel and craters.
Each team has two runs of the course and their best time is compared against the other teams.
A team of about 20 students have been designing and building Carleton’s buggy since September. Los said being on the team is a big time commitment.
“Every second goes into the moonbuggy,” she said.