NASA’s 17th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race to Be Broadcast Live April 9; Taped Interviews with Student Racers Available Via NASA Satellite
ATTENTION: Assignment Editor / TV & Web Producers
Friday, April 9, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT Prerecorded on-the-scene interviews / B-roll / Streaming Web coverage
STREAMING RACE COVERAGE AVAILABLE APRIL 9 ON NASA.GOV;
UP-TO-THE-MINUTE RACE NEWS AVAILABLE VIA TWITTER APRIL 9-10
More than 100 high school, college and university teams from around the world will compete in NASA’s 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race April 9-10. Downlink a prerecorded interview with a team from your area, conducted Thursday, April 8, 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 will be available on a looped feed April 9, and will accompany live race coverage during the day on NASA’s Education Channel. The event also will be streamed on the Web at: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Students, their families, friends and classmates can follow the 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 20 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Serbia, India and Romania 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. NASA’s 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.
Satellite Downlink Information
In the United States, NASA Television’s public, education and media channels are MPEG-2 digital C-band signals carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation. A Digital Video Broadcast-compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is needed for reception. To receive interviews on race day, turn to the Media Channel (Program 103). To air live race coverage, turn to NASA’s Education Channel (Program 102). Coordinate information for both channels follows:
AMC-3, Transponder 15C
Data Rate = 38.86 Mhz/s
87 Degrees West Longitude
Symbol Rate = 28.1115 Ms/s
Transmission Format: DVB-S
Video = 4130 Octal 1022 HEX
Downlink Frequency: 4000 MHz
Audio 4131 Octal 1023 HEX
Polarity = Horizontal
PMT = 4128 Octal 1020 HEX
FEC = 3/4
Satellite Interview Information Story Information
Bill Hubscher Angela Storey
Marshall Television Public & Employee Communications Office
256-544-5496 256-544-0034
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 2010
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
