WASHINGTON - More than 100 student teams from around the globe will drive their specially crafted lunar rovers through a challenging course of rugged, moon-like terrain at NASA's 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Ala., April 9-10.

Some 1,088 high school, college and university students from 20 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, Serbia, India and Romania are expected to participate in the race at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Students begin to prepare for the event each year during the fall semester. They must design, build and test a sturdy, collapsible, lightweight vehicle that addresses engineering problems similar to those overcome by the original Apollo-era lunar rover development team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in the late 1960s.

The buggies are based on the design of those classic rovers, which American astronauts drove across the moon's surface during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions in the early 1970s. Teams of students build their vehicles using trail bike tires, aluminum or composite-metal struts and parts. The best teams drive trains, gears, suspension, steering and braking systems they find or construct.

Top prizes are awarded to the three teams in both the high school and college/university divisions that post the fastest race times, which include assembly and penalty times. A variety of other prizes are given by race corporate sponsors. These include "rookie of the year" and the "featherweight" award, presented to the team with the lightest, fastest buggy.

NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race is one of many educational projects and initiatives the agency conducts each year to attract and engage America's next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers. They will carry on the nation's mission of exploration to unchartered destinations in our solar system.

"NASA is committed to inspiring young people in science, technology, engineering and math, and the Great Moonbuggy Race is an excellent way for us to reach out to young people and get them excited and involved in technical opportunities available to them," said Mike Selby, an avionics technical assistant in the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate. While completing his engineering degree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Selby was a member of the school's moonbuggy teams, helping them to a second-place finish in 1995 and to first place in 1996. Since 2001, he has served each year as a volunteer scorekeeper.

The race is hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and is sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Jacobs Engineering ESTS Group, all of Huntsville.

For a list of this year's competitors, visit: http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov/email.html

For more information about the competition, visit: http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov

For information about other NASA education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education

Source: NASA

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HOUSTON - The Twitterverse and universe will converge during space shuttle Endeavour's upcoming mission to the International Space Station. NASA is inviting the public to send questions for the astronauts via Twitter and have them answered live from space.

Astronaut Mike Massimino will be accepting questions for the crew from the public via his Twitter account until Thursday, Feb. 11. Massimino will be a shuttle Capcom, or spacecraft communicator, at NASA's Mission Control in Houston during Endeavour's flight, scheduled for launch Feb. 7.

At 2:24 a.m. CST on Feb. 11, Massimino will host an interactive event with the crew from his console in Mission Control. He will ask the astronauts as many submitted and live questions as practical during the 20-minute event. The shuttle will be docked to the station during the live question and answer session. The event with Endeavour's crew will be broadcast live on the Web and NASA Television.

The public is invited to start tweeting questions for Endeavour's crew today to Massimino's Twitter account, @astro_Mike, or add the hashtag #askastro to their tweets.

Endeavour's 13-day STS-130 mission will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, the final module of the U.S. portion of the station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the space station's life support and environmental control systems.

Attached to Tranquility is a cupola, which houses a robotic control station and has seven windows. The windows will provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. After the node and cupola are added, the orbiting laboratory will be approximately 90 percent complete.

The time and day of the Twitter session are subject to change due to mission priorities. Updates to the NASA TV event schedule are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttletv

For additional NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about Endeavour and the STS-130 mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Source: NASA

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Space has been dubbed sometimes as "the last frontier," but it is a rather large one, unfortunately - or not. It is indeed hard to reach outer space but it isn't so to explore it right from home.

Since the advent of personal computers some things have become easier; among these we should count the use of simulators and image processing systems. This, added to the huge number of research devices located now in orbit around Earth as well as other planets, moons and even deep space, make it possible for anyone with a modest PC to see what lies beyond our atmosphere without much hassle, and even to create one's own inventions and make new discoveries. Astronomy is a science where there is still some room for the amateur observer or researcher.Exploring space is not just a matter of curiosity but necessity: We cannot remain tied to our home planet forever and even only if for survival reasons, we will have to go for the stars one day. But first things first, before attempting to reach warp speed we actually have to get to know where we will be going to. Thus, we need first to learn a little bit about outer space.

And one of the best ways to start learning about this exciting activity is by using some software, so here we recommend you a couple of programs that aside from being of excellent quality, are completely free and can be easily downloaded from the Web. If you are a newcomer, we recommend that you get both of them:

Celestia.

Orbiter.

Source: Pablo Edronkin, Andinia.com

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