Bored highschoolers at home? Have them design a race car for the Moon

The design criteria are quite interesting. For starters, there’s an 11lb (5kg) weight limit. But 3.6lbs (1.6kg) are already spoken for thanks to a standardized battery and power-control module, solar panel, UHF radio and antenna, Wi-Fi module, and a single-board computer that will run the rover. All of these components were chosen by Moon Mark as suitable for the extreme temperatures experienced on the lunar surface, which can range between -173˚C and 126˚C.

Beyond that, each team is free to come up with its own solution, although Moon Mark stresses that the main purpose of these rovers is to go fast. But there obviously needs to be some form of propulsion along the lunar surface, a steering mechanism, and a camera so the rover (or whoever is controlling it remotely) knows where it’s going. Which in this case will be in an area on the Moon near Vallis Schröteri.

Moon Mark says it will judge the entries on five categories, each given equal weight. The categories are: how space-worthy the design is, how the team worked together virtually under the COVID-19 lockdown, how much innovative problem solving it incorporates, the creativity and ability of a design to engage other people, and how entrepreneurial the team’s solution is.

If you have bored kids at home, or you are a bored kid at home, you can register for free any time until May 22.