News

The final preparations for the NASA-Moonbuggy Team

We here at Rohloff are pleased to hear that work on the Moonbuggy is coming along fast and we wish the constructors and the initiators all the best for the upcoming Moonbuggy race in the USA. Ralf Heckel, Chairman of the German Space Education Institute, described the current situation:

 

"Our fingers physically hurt from all the work, Tiredness over a long period with short nights can be easily felt and still, strict attention must prevail. We have all become accustomed to the constant rattling noise of the Moonbuggy testing jig over the last few eeks. A further tone joins the noises each week as components add up. Component group after component group have been coupled together with their own gear-unit and satisfyingly tested. From today, the noise is now the sound of a calmly rotating 8 cylinder deisel engine - quiet of course. It is produced from four double load-distributing bevelled gears. They form the heart of the trendsetting differential gear-unit with a very compact space. It is a movement consisting of over 100 Precision components, is a completely new construction from the 17-22 year-old young design engineers and harboured materials such as Aramid, Carbon and Polymer. From the outside it looks like a bicycle hub, inside however it can withstand forces which will allow it to perform in motorsport.
 

For the third time the small group of selected elite German students are preparing themselves for the challenges that they will face from the NASA construction competition for which every young German engineer strives for. They wish to motivate learning efficiency and are still the only participants within the Euro-region. Nearly all of the over fifty private industry partners have remained loyal to their extraordinary productivity. The number is even steadily increasing, regardless of the current economic status. This is a sign of the deep recognition that is tied up with the hope from this generation and the responsibility is taken to heart by the young design engineers.

 

For the first time in history, 88 teams will fight amongst each other this year. It is essential to master the accomplishment of our future. Three years ago, the German team was the start of an international invasion, since then the number of international participants at the competition has increased annually. This year on the 3rd and 4th of Aprilthere will also be 8 teams from India and 2 teams from Romania attending. The EU countries who are usually considered to be the High-Tech engineerring nations are only disadvantaged through their lack of attendance. Nevertheless, the idea bag of the German team is just as heavy forty years after the original moon-landing. An elaborate self-built data-electronic including sensors, a blackbox, radio elements and software analysis is put into deployment next to the Rohloff SPEEDHUB, a further joker and novelty at this competition. Hereby an untypical for this age-group, high level of scientific know-how can be reached and presented. The analysis of the data will offer  useful results and information over the stiffness, dynamic and the application of the futuristic materials.