Saturday, March 14, 2009

U. of Alabama / Huntsville team competes to design mobile lunar lab

Shelby G, Spires
The Huntsville Times

School group is one of 15 chosen by NASA

Astronauts could be roaming the lunar surface one day in a mobile moon base based on University of Alabama in Huntsville student designs.

A UAH student design team is one of 15 in the nation to be selected by NASA to proceed with advanced development studies that would push beyond lunar-base concepts the space agency already has on its computer drawing boards.

The undergraduate and graduate engineering teams won the right to compete against each other at the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage, or RASC-AL, forum to be held in Cocoa Beach, Fla., June 1-4.

"The goal is to build a mobile, roving lab that would allow astronauts to travel 2,500 kilometers or about 1,500 miles and allow for stays up to 100 days," said Tom Percy, an aerospace engineer who works for SAIC and is advising the team. "It would be a true mobile base and lab."

Read the rest HERE.

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