What is the Great Light Racer Championship?
The GLRC (must have an acronym!) is a technology and science competition designed for parent/child, teacher/students, or RC car hobbyist teams. The teams compete in solving a real NASA lunar exploration problem: building a rover that can operate in a permanently shadowed area of the moon. Competition rovers consist of an electric RC car, modified to operate using a beam of light as its power source. The teams design, build, and operate the cars. We (Spaceward) provide the race track and the high-power spotlights used to power and race the cars.

What can we win?
Winning teams will take home $1000-$2500, runner ups will take home $500-$1000, and there will be other prizes for distinguished teams - the total prize purse is $10,000! All qualifiers will receive a personalized Light Racer driver's license and a certificate of accomplishment. The real pay-back, however, is weeks of educational fun and the excitement of the championship. Bragging rights count too.

Who can play?

The championship is open to three groups: Schools, Families, and Grown-Ups. School and family groups must have a person under the age of 16 controlling the car. A grown-up can handle the spotlight.

How much does it cost? How long does it take?
A basic entry will cost $200-$250 to build (K-12 information).  Spaceward charges $25 for registration. Starting with an electric RC car and a solar battery charger, a basic Light Racer can be built literally in a couple of hours. This is only a starting point however - making a winning Light Racer will take several iterations and can be a source of fun for weeks on end.

Where and When?
The Great Light Racer Championship will be held at the 2007 Spaceward Games at the Davis County event center. Preliminaries will be held starting October 15th at the competition site. To qualify, a team must demonstrate an end-to-end beam powered run. The best 32 teams will move on to the play-offs, which will be held on Saturday, October 20th.

What do we need to build?
Each team needs to bring in only a beam powered RC Car. Spaceward will provide the spot lights, track, and other gadgets such as light trees and finish wires.

How can I practice?
Practice helps. If you can't get a commercial spotlight, use a smaller source such as a handheld spotlight and get close to the car. Use math to calculate how close you need to get. No need to practice in darkness - it is enough that the ambient light is dim - if your beam of light is brighter than the ambient light, you're doing ok.

Once I register, what happens?
Registration gets you on our lists, so we can let you into the qualification rounds during the week. You will also receive a starter's pack by mail. On site, one registration gets you three qualifying shots. If you succeed in completing an end-to-end run, you are considered "qualified" and receive a certificate listing your team name and your official time. The best time out of three shots is your official time.

Where should I start?
A very good place to start is your neighborhood hobby shop or electronics store, or our starter's kit page. Get a Remote Control car. Better still - get a person who's been seriously playing with RC cars.

I want to practice with a real spotlight - where can I get one?
Our good friend Ken suggested the local theatre - they have a stage, and they have spotlight. You can also rent a competition-type spotlight from your local spot-light rental facility. A school's gym is an ideal practice grounds.

What is the race track like?
We will have two types of tracks - hard surface for speed, and loose dirt with obstacles. Your choice of track will occur when you qualify. The hard track is defined above, we're still working on the obstacle one.

How fast will the car go?
That all depends on how well you can extract power from the beam. At full speed, when consuming 50 Watts or so, these cars can go 10 feet per second. We expect significant hiccups along the way though, and so a typical race will last anywhere between 30 and 60 seconds.