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A solar car for an engineering competition. We get to compete against many other universities in the Formula Sun Grand Prix and North American Solar Challenge... The North American Solar Challenge is a 2500 mile rayce strictly on solar power. :-)

I managed the team for the last 2 years, and as a Computer Science of Engineering major, it was cool to get to help with aluminum chassis and fiberglass fabrication, programming microcontrollers, and of course the not as fun, fundraising. Lots of hard work, but I volunteered thousands of hours of my own time and it was a great experience.

Yeah! I was moderating that discussion... and then I told me comments don't exist... find the journal section... then the article dissappeared off my front page and the developers page... Sure it was a "nothing to see here article" but nonetheless.

A much more interesting story is that The North American Solar Car Rayce Just finsihed with a 45 second difference between U of M's Momentum and U of MN's Borealis III (sp?) Once the penalties are assesed and the other racers finish an annoucement will appear.

NASC site
Umich's blog
Place for timing results
Finish Line GPS page (autorefreshing)

Yeah! I was moderating that discussion... and then I told me comments don't exist... find the journal section... then the article dissappeared off my front page and the developers page... Sure it was a "nothing to see here article" but nonetheless.

A much more interesting story is that The North American Solar Car Rayce Just finsihed with a 45 second difference between U of M's Momentum and U of MN's Borealis III (sp?) Once the penalties are assesed and the other racers finish an annoucement will appear.

NASC site
Umich's blog
Place for timing results
Finish Line GPS page (autorefreshing)

Yeah! I was moderating that discussion... and then I told me comments don't exist... find the journal section... then the article dissappeared off my front page and the developers page... Sure it was a "nothing to see here article" but nonetheless.

A much more interesting story is that The North American Solar Car Rayce Just finsihed with a 45 second difference between U of M's Momentum and U of MN's Borealis III (sp?) Once the penalties are assesed and the other racers finish an annoucement will appear.

NASC site
Umich's blog
Place for timing results
Finish Line GPS page (autorefreshing)

You could have a solar car, if you didn't mind it looking like a black pop-tart and other problems.

Having traveled more than 2,000 miles in such vehicles, I can tell you that we are very aware of the risks of solar car racing. FaustII, U of T's car, was built to race in the American Solar Challenge. The safety regulations can be found here. Notable points are that the team must have a lead and chase vehicle to protect the car from traffic, there must be a roll cage (including a steel roll bar), and the driver must wear a motorcycle helmet and a 5 point harness. The body, suspension, and systems of a car are inspected, and the braking and steering are tested dynamically. In the 2003 American Solar Challenge, of the 28 teams that showed up, 8, including the previous champion, did not qualify due to safety concerns. Faust II met these requirements, as well as the rules put in place by Ontario's Ministry of Transportation. Safety is the top priority, if for no other reason than the fact that you won't win races if the car breaks down, or if the driver doesn't feel safe (and therefore refuses to go over 5 miles an hour). The people who run these races and drive these vehicles are not dumbasses; a very real and very large effort is made to see to it that these vehicles are safe.

Clearly, some part of the safety process was inadaquate. I am confident that what ever the cause of the accident was, the problem can be corrected, and solar racing can continue not as the safest sport in the world, but probably safer than, say, mountain climbing. I just can't unterstand how some people get off trashing the efforts of people they've never met in a task they know nothing about.

Some information on solar cars:
They have operated on public roads for about 15 years. They participate in long, cross country races, the two most popular being the American Solar Challenge (various routes, the most recent was from Chicago to Los Angles) and the World Solar Challenge (Accross Australia, from Darwin to Adelaide, on the Stuart Highway, an unfriendly road shared with road-trains (think a semi truck, but around 200 feet long, 180 tons)). Given the number of miles that solar cars have covered, their safety record has been pretty damn good.

From the limited information I've seen, nothing indicates that the design of the car or the actions of the team posed any threat greater than that of riding a motorcycle. A boy lost control of his vehicle. and died. and yes, it does happen every day. and it's sad.

There will certianly be an investigation into the cause of the accident, whether the rules governing solar cars should be changed, or if solar cars should even continue to be operated on open roads.

But now is is the time for grief. My heart goes out to Andrew's friends and family, Blue Sky, and UT.

First, solar cells loose efficiency rather rapidly when they are pointed more than 15 - 20 degrees away from the sun. It doesn't look like there is much in the way of horizontal surface on these cars. Each facet of the array has similar electrical properties, and must be tied together with a power point tracker. (This maximizes the facet's power curve and converts array output voltages (variable) to match the car's.) Each facet has different inputs as far as voltage and current goes, since the sun angle is different. Of course these variables change as the car goes around corners. Needless to say, the more curvy the array, the more power trackers are needed.

Secondly, the money per watt ratio is rather low. For winning cars in the American solar challenge race, it is not uncommon to spend $50,000 for an array made from rejected space grade cells, and $15,000 on a lithium battery. Keep in mind those sums are for cells (solar and battery) alone, not the labor of encapsulating the array from the elements putting the whole thing together.

Here's some links:

Our team - Sunsetters
American Solar Challenge - ASC
Formula Sun - formula sun
The other teams - teams

Here's some links:

Our team - Sunsetters
American Solar Challenge - ASC
Formula Sun - formula sun
The other teams - teams

I think he's talking about the American Solar Car Challenge. Its quite an interesting activity, especially all the different tricks the teams use to try to get more performance out of their cars. (And there's quite a variety!) I know one of the coders who was on Principia's team last year (they came in 4th, which is really impressive, considering some of the competition) and the stories about all the stuff they went through to get a working car are fascinating.

You mean this: American Solar Challenge.

Two of the teams in WSC were competitors in ASC!

You can follow the progress of the Queen's University Team here. The Queen's team came 7th in this year's American Solar Challenge and is looking to finish in the top 3 in this competition. One of the unique features of the Queen's car is that it is a two-seater, one of the few in the world.

There's a lot of technical information about the Queen's car here (Pages 4 and 5)

It's too bad this year's winner of the American Solar Challenge couldn't raise enough money to ship the car to Australia and compete.

The impressive part is only the top 12 cars even *finished* the race:
http://americansolarchallenge.org/daily_race_stand ings.html

We (UMR) usually gets burned by MIT, but the running joke is our car is less than a quarter million while their's is closer to 1.5 mil, least it was a few years ago.

Even though the rules are strict there's still plenty of things you can sink money into, like tires, frame material, etc.

Go solar!

The website that is linked to in the original post is out of date. The Official Website has more information.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

[ I submitted the following as a story on Saturday. Plenty of links and info, but it got passed up. ]

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

[ I submitted the following as a story on Saturday. Plenty of links and info, but it got passed up. ]

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

[ I submitted the following as a story on Saturday. Plenty of links and info, but it got passed up. ]

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

[ I submitted the following as a story on Saturday. Plenty of links and info, but it got passed up. ]

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.