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Students to race remote control cars on the moon in 2021

Two teams of high-school students are creating remote control cars to race on the moon. No, this isn’t Mario Kart.

In the new year, a few lucky high-school students will get the chance to try their hand at automotive engineering alongside Frank Stephenson, the motor genius behind the design of McLaren’s flagship supercar the M-P1. Get this though, that isn’t even the most exciting part.

The competition, devised by SpaceX chief Elon Musk and ‘edu-design’ company Moon Mark, will see Stephenson team up with these young innovators to create two remote-controlled cars to be raced across the moon’s surface. Yes, you read that right.

A bunch of different schools have entered across the globe. Each team will compete in a series of qualifying phases involving e-gaming and drone racing, as well as activities designed to improve the entrepreneurship skills of all involved. The two teams left standing at the end will fight it out in zero gravity.

The race is currently slated for October 2021, provided there are no hitches with Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket or the first ever batch of privately built moon landers courtesy of Houston based tech company Intuitive Machines. Should the two cars complete the journey from the Kennedy Space Center to their lunar track intact, they’ll be controlled remotely by a member of each student team using high powered remote controls. How’s that for extra-curricular activity?

Once the light goes green, both teams will see real-time visuals and telemetry data direct from a ‘ring’ of cameras scattered around the track broadcasting every moment of the race.

You’re probably wondering if there’s any real point to this – besides Musk living out another childhood fantasy with his boundless fortune. According to Stephenson the project’s primary focus is ‘helping to develop the innovators of the future, allowing them to dream big and realise that nothing is impossible.’ Moon racing doesn’t have to be confined to video gaming is the message we’re getting.

In recent years, tech tycoons like Musk and Bezos have been utilising space for the betterment of humanity, investing billions in equipment to better connect the world, monitor the effects of climate change, and refine our emergency responses to natural disasters.

To that end, this mission is a concerted effort to inspire the next generation of thinkers and entrepreneurs to continue innovating with aerospace for the good of the planet.

There are practical elements to the expedition too… it’s not all play, as temping as that prospect may be. The launch carrying the RC cars will kick-start a wider research mission to a moon valley as large as the Grand Canyon, with scientists continuing to probe for answers to the universe’s most pertinent questions.

In the meantime, maybe we can adorn the valley in school banners for the winner’s glory lap.

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