18th Annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race to Be Broadcast Live on Ustream
ATTENTION: Assignment Editor / TV & Web Producers
Streaming Web Coverage on NASA’s UStream Channel Friday, April 1, starting at 7 a.m. CDT (includes Lunar Roving Vehicle 40th anniversary celebration)
and Saturday, April 2, 5 p.m. CDT (awards ceremony)
Prerecorded on-the-scene interviews and B-roll on NASA’s Media Channel Friday, April 1, 8-10 a.m. and 2-5 p.m. CDT
and Saturday, April 2, 7-10 a.m. and noon-4 p.m. CDT
STREAMING RACE COVERAGE AVAILABLE APRIL 1 ON USTREAM; UP-TO-THE-MINUTE RACE NEWS AVAILABLE VIA TWITTER APRIL 1-2
More than 80 high school, college and university teams from around the world will compete in the 18th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race April 1-2. Downlink a prerecorded interview with a team from your area, conducted Thursday, March 31, at the race site — the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. Learn how teams design, build and test their buggies to tackle the course’s simulated lunar terrain. Interview segments and B-roll will be available on a looped feed April 1-2 on the NASA TV Media Channel. On April 1, the race and the 40th anniversary celebration of the first use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the moon will be streamed on the Web at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc
The gala event honors the men and women who designed, tested, built and piloted the original lunar rovers — many of whom are expected to take part in the celebration. Members of the news media are invited to attend. On April 2, the awards ceremony also will be available on the NASA UStream channel. Students, their families, friends and classmates can follow the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/moonbuggyrace) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/moonbuggyrace). NASA will “Tweet” updates throughout the race, including finishing times for each team. More than 1,000 students from 22 states and Puerto Rico and international challengers from six countries — including Canada, India, Germany, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Russia — will race their lightweight, two-person buggies against the clock over a half-mile-long course of sand, gravel pits, simulated craters and other obstacles.
The NASA Great Moonbuggy Race is designed to inspire and engage America’s next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers – those who will carry on the nation’s mission of discovery in decades to come.
The race was inspired by the first lunar rovers, designed, built and tested by engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in the late 1960s. The rovers were used on the moon during three lunar expeditions in the early 1970s. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first lunar rover rolling across the moon’s surface.
Satellite Downlink Information
In continental North America, Alaska and Hawaii, NASA Television’s Public, Education, Media and HD channels are MPEG-2 digital C-band signals carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation on satellite AMC-3, transponder 15C, at 87 degrees west longitude. Downlink frequency is 4000 MHz, horizontal polarization, with a data rate of 38.86 Mhz, symbol rate of 28.1115 Ms/s, and 3/4 FEC. A Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) is needed for reception.
“Media Channel” Programming:
SD Program = 103 (HQ3)
Compression Format = MPEG-2
Video PID = 0x1031 hex / 4145 decimal
AC-3 Audio PID = 0x1035 hex /4149 decimal
MPEG I Layer II Audio PID = 0x1034 hex /4148 decimal
For satellite interview or story information, call Angela Storey at
256-544-0034. For information on race days, call Angela Storey at
256-714-4370; Megan Davidson at 256-783-8713; or Rick Smith at
256-213-6789.
For more event details, race rules and other information, visit:http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov
For past winner photos and a complete NASA fact sheet about the 2011
race, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/pdf/433635main_8-456421-BW.pdf
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
