I'm not sure whether to put this here, or in civilian wheels, since it's related to NASA, but doesn't actually go in space.
Anyway, earlier this year I got recruited for a new Moonbuggy team that had started up on campus which would compete in the race held every year at the US Space and Rocket Center. This team, headed up by the same friend that got me in to see to the Dreamliner touch down at Huntsville International, was comprised almost entirely of engineering majors even though the team was sponsored by the College of Science (CoS). Every year the university had sent one team to the race from the College of Engineering (CoE). This time around, the CoE had signed up two teams, which was unfortunate because the CoS team had already signed up and each institution was only allowed two teams to compete in the actual race.
This lead to an internal competition where the second CoE team and the CoS team gave presentations to a panel of judges about their buggy designs. In addition to a traditional Powerpoint presentation, the team I was with also had couple of physical visual aids which included the buggy frame and a physical model of the current concept.
Shown below is the physical model (1:12) model I built to help "sell" our design. It's made primarily of balsa, bamboo, and toothpicks and has tires made of rubber O-rings. The real one is currently under construction and will be racing this Friday and Saturday.
^Articulated folding mechanism.
(I thought it was funny that one of the judges thought I had made it on a rapid protyping machine.)
For information, here is the official website:
Marshall Space Flight Center - The Great Moonbuggy Race