NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

[1][2] Students created vehicles dubbed "moonbuggies" to face challenges similar to those engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center addressed in preparation for Apollo 15.

On that mission, on July 31, 1971, the first Lunar Roving Vehicle extended the range of astronauts on the Moon to allow for further exploration than was otherwise possible.

In 1996, the competition was moved to a .75-mile (1.21 km) course at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center; high school teams also began competing.

[7] The first course was the actual track used by Mobility Test Articles, auditioning versions of Lunar Roving Vehicles that were used on the Moon.

At the team's start time, the two riding students must carry the buggy, collapsed to fit in a 5-foot (1.5 m) cube (pre-2014 a 4-foot (1.2 m) cube), for 20 feet (6.1 m), then expand the rover and ride it across the obstacles and along the track, avoiding cones marking the edges of the course, bales of hay, and other obstructions, while successfully navigating the modest hills of the terrain and obstacles.

[4] Contestants are high school and university students largely from the United States, including Puerto Rico.

Students traverse a simulated crater in a moonbuggy they designed and built themselves.
The first two events were held at the original track used for testing lunar rover candidates. Here, the team from Puerto Rico navigates boulders.
Since 1996, the course winds through the rocket park at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This map shows the 2012 course.
An obstacle for the 2013 contest awaits final preparations. Tires form small craters and gravel substitutes for Moon surface material.
Students from Graff Career Center, Springfield, Missouri. navigate the 360° turn around the permanent crater feature at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in 1999.
The Cornell #2 team competes in the 2002 race.
North Dakota State University students enter an obstacle on the course in 2003.