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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On 2 March, Italian Chief of Defence General Vincenzo Camporini delivered an inaugural address at the NATO Defense College in Rome to kick off the 116th Senior Course. He was welcomed by LtGen Wolf-Dieter Loeser, Commandant of the College.

In his opening remarks, LtGen Loeser reminded course participants of the importance of deepening their knowledge to meet NATO's current challenges.

General Camporini's address highlighted the primary objective of NATO's new Strategic Concept: to tackle new global threats and, by strengthening Allied solidarity, ensure that NATO is better able to respond to new security challenges.

To achieve NATO's goals, the General said it is essential to develop stronger synergy with key governmental and non-governmental actors on the international stage. In addition, he called for more emphasis on enhancing the relationship between NATO and the European Union. General Camporini's speech was followed by a lively question and answer period.

The six-month Senior Course is the College's core business. It aims to prepare senior officers and civilian officials for high-level positions with the Alliance through in-depth study of the changing international security environment and new, multi-faceted threats and challenges.

More than 80 military personnel and civilians representing 29 NATO and Partner countries are attending the course.

Source: NATO News

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If a spaceship with aliens from other part of the universe would come to our planet and enter a low Earth orbit in order to observe us, where would they find the most savage humans?

This would make a lot of sense as a question for any exploration leader: It is evident that before landing, risks should be properly assessed and understood. So, what could they do? They could see us using some sort of telescope, or they could enter our data networks and take a look at our history, or they could simply watch TV.

Without doubt, the leader of such an expedition would be interested in anything and everything, but in order to understand the risks involved in meeting us he, she or it would probably be less interested in the beginning about our ancient history than in current events, relative power ratios, recent history and future trends. So, he would look back at our resume for - perhaps - a hundred years.

And within that time span, the leader of such an expedition would see that we humans had our share of self-provoked disasters. He - we assume that we are speaking about a "he", although it could be she or it, of course - would learn a bout Stalin, Hitler, Lenin, Mao and the factions that took part in the most destructive events that happened in our planed within that span of time: the United States, China, Russia, Germany, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.

He would further see that two of those factions - what we know as countries - are no longer in the destruction business, so Japan and Germany would soon be taken out of the sample. But he would also see that two additional factions have already replaced them: Israel and its neighbours.

And among the remaining factions, it would be interesting for the alien expeditionaries to establish which ones would represent the highest danger in terms of both their destructive capacity as well as their intentions: Russia would certainly impress and disquiet them for the nation's arsenals as well as its bloody history, but since they and the Chinese have been quiet lately, they would have to be monitored but they seem to be at least thoughtful. Israel and its neighbours are quarrelling bitterly, but their troubles are relatively domestic, while the faction known as France seems to be not quite active in this regard, so, they could also be taken out of the picture.

And what is left? Two factions: the United States and the United Kingdom. These have been at war for decades, unabated, with a myriad of enemies. Considering that they call themselves "democracies" - a concept to be pondered aside by our alien friends - it becomes apparent that the people living in those nations just love destruction because they actually chose to be so. If there is something that could be seen constantly in the history of these two factions - or countries, as Earthlings call them - is that they have been fighting wars all around their planet against scores of enemies from which, naturally, they have nothing good to say. But as it doesn't speak well about a person to have more enemies than friends, it doesn't really speak well about a nation to have so many wars, from a place called "the Falklands" (other factions call it "Malvinas", so who's right?) to other place known as "Ulster", to "Vietnam", "Iraq", "Afghanistan" and so on, they seem to be poised to take part in destructive events all around the planet.

Strange indeed if they consider themselves to be "democracies", a form of government that implies that Earthlings solve their issues by negotiating. Clearly, those countries are not democracies despite the fact that they believe they are, for any sufficiently advanced society would act upon others in the same way that they would like to be acted upon by others, and not by force. At the very least, they are incapable of talking so the leadership that they want to have in their world is completely questionable. I other words: those in the so-called United States and United Kingdom are the most disunite regards other human beings. They are clearly very competent in technical and military terms, but more inept than average at solving disputes in a peaceful manner. They cannot be considered as the best Earthlings to talk to, save for starting an interplanetary war.

Source: Pablo Edronkin, Andinia.com

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