Slashdot Mirror
American Solar Challenge 2003 Starts
Ryan Kingsbury writes "The world's longest solar car race kicked off to a sunny start today in Chicago! The American Solar Challenge, which is only held every two years, runs 11 gruelling days along historic Route 66. Race updates can be found at the official site. One big surprise was that last year's winner (University of Michigan) didn't make it through prerace qualifications. This will certainly give some lower budget teams a chance at gold. Details of qualifications can be found here."
That's cool and all...but what happens if they have 10 days of clouds?
:D
First non-troll post
your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
Last year's winner not making it through qualifications? Must've been a cloudy day.
There's never enough when you have too little
This brings a whole new meaning to traveling by day. :P
If prize was set at 1000000$, 10000000$, or even more money, contest winners will likely build SUPER sun vehicles that can over-take 4-wheel ram rods and pollutant S.U.V.s.
I suggest you read Slashdot
It'd be much better if the students pursued smaller, more discrete projects that they could truly get involved with. It's sad that many engineering students end up doing things like PR, fundraisers, etc etc instead of engineering -- and trust me, that is what happens at places like UM. They don't have to be ruined by paperwork 2 years into a bachelors degree. They'll have plenty of time in the real world to trade useful engineering skills for that...
depends on how they construct the electrical system, and the level of cloudyness. just an overcast day can still produce electricity.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
... you know the truth about route 66/Area 51 experiments and UFOs ...
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
I'm all for the innovation that is spurred in these sorts of competitions, but I'd really like to see what some of the real-world results have been from this kind of technological refinement. I hate to this that all this effort was being expended without any extrapolation into regular, everyday technological usage.
+ G to tha Izzo, A to tha Tizee, Talking Giz-oat, Ya'll Bettah Feel Me... +
i'm no electrical engineer, but i'm guessing they would most likely being using very sensative panels, ones manufactured for "less the perfect" lighting conditions. Back that with a decent series of capaciters and priority based distribution, they wouldn't have any problems.
your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
Yah great timing.. i wish i would have known about this earlier today so i could actually see it.. living in chicago and all... why post this if it's allready happened???
this is not a sig.
I support renewable power and all (Use an iSUN battery charger for my portable Electronics), but think of all the non-renewable time and energy devoted to this type of event. Materials fabrication, student time spent, assembly. The fleet of gas powered cars following around for support of each of these. Research is important, but can't this be a little counter productive?
"last year's winner..." "every two years"
You editors are really slipping here...
webpage
Can they use wind power (at night) or sterling engines?
I couldnt find any rules posted at the official website.
this looks more like the future of motoring
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
gnarly little solar vehicle. designs havent seemed to change much for many years.
*I used to be quite irreverent and ignorant. I am probably much smarter now. I seem to realize this every 45 days or so.
The missing link
1. Connect solar panel to battery terminals of flashlight
2. Point flashlight at solar panel
3. Turn on flashlight
4. Profit!
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
"Michigan will not be participating in the 2003 American Solar Challenge. While qualifying for the race in Wisconsin, the car suffered steering system failures which did not allow SpectruM to qualify for and enter the race.
...
The team is also exploring the possibility of racing SpectruM this October in the World Solar Challenge in Australia, as well as participating in the inaugural 2004 Phaethon Hellas Solar Rally held in Greece before the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens."
umich.edu/solarcar
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
In fact, the team makes a huge effort to reach out to non-engineering students, and we usually have excellent turnout.
I am a part of my university's solar car program, but, unfortunately, we couldn't get our body made in time for the rayce. I did, however, make the 10 hour drive to see the cars in Chicago. If anyone is near where 'scrutineering' is in 2 years, they should definetely go see it.
I helped out with getting various information on different teams' cars, and some of the prices for the things are a bit ridiculous. My university's car is costing less than $150,000, which I thought was pricey until some teams told me that their cars cost 1.5 Million (Queens) or 875,000 (Waterloo).
I think most people think that the rayce is about showing people that we could have cars that run off of solar power, but that is entirely the wrong idea. The cars are made to show solar powers' abilities... if it can power a car, maybe it could do other things too (who woulda thought?)
I wish I could've gone on the rayce, but seeing all the cars was cool enough. I just hope our car makes it in time for Formula Sun next year! (Formula Sun Grand Prix is a track race every year)
http://www.formulasun.org
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
I am never interested in Solar car races but Fuel Cell Cars would peak my interest since cars could be using this technology in the coming years.
That's rough.
Seth
How do you use wind power on a car? Wind turbines wouldn't work, maybe a sail?
My wife was in Braidwood IL on Sunday visiting her mom, eating lunch at a restaurant along Route 66. As they ate, they saw seven or eight of the cars go by, with chase cars etc. She said they were all very aerodynamic-looking, and she wondered if they'd be picked up by high winds. Lots of windy weather out there; the previous week there'd been tornado watches next door in Indiana.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
Every two years, eh? Does that mean the previous challenge's entrants just keep going when they reach the finish line?
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
The problem I have for this race is that it allows for very little innovation. Storage of energy via flywheels overnight is prohibited, you are limited on how many batteries you can store, what type you can use, and how you use them. You are prohibited to use any solar nighttime charging, star-light or IR charging, or any other innovative way to charge during off time, as your battery box has to be removed at the end of the day and impounded. You are also limited of which type of solar cell you can use. New processes for solar cells have been invented and are in current commercial production that make it much more efficient per sq foot, but you are limited to using old cut-wafer solar cells that have been around for many years. There is one company making contueous ribbon cells (the 'wafer sheet' is drawn from a solid chunk into a ribbon similar like fiber optic glass is drawn into a string from a solid rod) that would be much better suited to the dimension of a car, but you cant use any of that modern technology. This race if more of a contest of who can make the lightest car body and go the furthest on X amps of battery and solar cells, rather than who can make the best solar technology automobile.
You wont be saying that in a couple of years
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The UM solar car, SpectrUM, has four wheel steering - the rear wheels are servo actuated with the front being mechanical linkages. It is alos a two person car - the tradoff is that you can have a larger solar array if you carry two people.
I got to see them in a test run a week or two ago, and it's very odd to see the car moving in one direction, but pointing 10-20 degrees off its path. The race page indicates that steering failure caused the car not to finish the prequalifier - probably due in part to their more complex system.
As a note, the previous car did have four wheel steering, but the rear two wheels were locked during the races. I understand the reason is that the fairings (covers to keep wind drag down) became too large and the drag was greater than the benefit of having four wheel steering.
There is a ton of technology in the cars - both in and on the cells and within the shell - which you can't see because they like to keep an edge over other teams. Even though the cells appear to be flat on the back they are designed to take light in at a particular angle (or as close as one can get to that angle) and so I assume the four wheel steering is to enable them to point the cells more effectively into the sun.
-Adam
I see them almost every year when they come through here. I guess I'll have to call to find out when they expect them - Their website doesnt show dates they are supposed to meet the stops.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
However, in terms of carbon dioxide emission, which most scientists regard as the primary cause of global warming and most Americans stick their head in the sand over, the clunker will be way better.
And, finally, have you considered the possibility that the polluntants created in manufacturing a new car for our clunker-driving might be lower the extra pollution of its continued operation when compared to a new car?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
And ~50% of the teams are Canadian? ;-)
Actually, don't the Canadians often win this event?
-psy
Now, it's a "sport" like this that I could actually get interested in...if only this were on ESPN more often, or similar, I'd definitely be watching such a whole lot more.
Whenever someone starts a sentence with "I am no , yaddya yaddya about " I always stop reading after the comma.
btw, I am a EE
Small rant follows:
Why have mechanical linkages up front only to have servo-activated linkages in the rear? Seems like having servos would eat into your energy budget pretty quick.
People have to realize that electric cars should not have power anything. What is the point of trying to be environmentally concious when you are blasting your AC during the summer? You just can't do it.
If you want to make a statement about saving the planet, then just buy a gasoline powered car with rack-and-pinion steering, manual windows, no AC, no radio, etc... You get all the benifits of gasoline and the added bonus of using as little of it as possible.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
As far as the engineering aspects go, I have a couple rhetorical questions:
How realistic is it that a bunch of students will be able to
1) develop new types of photovoltaic cells?
2) develop new, more efficient electric motors
Those are the kinds of things that have been through a lot of development already and will need tons of resources in terms of finances, facilities and manpower. It is wholly unrealistic to expect a group of undergrads (and possibly grads) to make any sort of strides in those areas.
What the students are doing well is taking existing technology and putting it together in well-developed and increasingly well-refined packages.
Making technical progress isn't always about developing an even fancier motor or PV array. Technical progress is often about finding new ways to put together existing technology.
People who complain about undergrads not researching new types of PV cells simply have no concept of what they're actually asking, and certainly have no appreciation of the ingenuity of many of the Solar Car designs and the technical developments they in many ways represent.
--I am Sun Tzu of the Borg. Resistance is feudal.
Go, Missouri Miners! If your solar car can get you out of Rolla, just keep going!
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
It uses stored solar energy in a form called "gasoline".
Bet it would do pretty good in this race, too.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
The problem is, any time some new technology comes out that improves solar efficiency, every team has to have it or they have no chance. These cars are already ridiculously expensive, and if you let the teams go hog wild, the winner would by decided by their budget rather than talent or effort -- well, more than it is already.
One, as others have pointed out, solar systems can still run on a cloudy day. Two, they have battery backups. Three, poor weather conditions effect all the teams (pretty much) equally.
This story brings back memories. Those were the good old days. What a useless post I just made!
At "Sunrayce 99" (ASC used to be called Sunrayce) there was severe rain on 8 out of 10 race days. I was there. Average speed for the race dropped to about 20mph. From D.C. to Orlando, FL it was one wet mess.
List of prior races.
Thanks very much!
Ryan Kingsbury writes "The world's longest solar car race kicked off to a sunny start today in Chicago! The American Solar Challenge, which is only held every two years, runs 11 gruelling days along historic Route 66. Race updates can be found at the official site. One big surprise was that last year's winner (University of Michigan) didn't make it through prerace qualifications. This will certainly give some lower budget teams a chance at gold. Details of qualifications can be found here."
So, the race is held every two years. It kicked off today. But last year's winner didn't qualify?
Perhaps that's because they were expecting the next race to be in 2004?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Someone care to look up the efficiency of lightbulbs?
On a side note, I once built a flashlight for the blind. I'm dead serious.
Nature also wrote an article about the American Solar Challenge 2003. This summary of Nature's story contains photographs coming from the ASC Photo Library, but read Nature's article for more technical details.
Sure, you can spend a fortune on specially selected cells which are 17% efficient, but most people will be stuck with 10% efficiency and that means very large areas and lots of cells, which are expensive, to generate reasonable amounts of power.
A better solar solution for many applications is solar thermal rather than photovoltaic. Higher collector efficiency (80%) on small scale vacuum tube panels typically used for domestic water and central heating and higher conversion efficiency to electricity for big plants (28%).
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
As usual, the Solar Race winner, which traversed the course, in a single day is Sol.
And what spurs development. Everyone is looking for a technical advantage over the other guy, no matter what that is. I don't see it as a problem that one team wins because they've put together a better technical solution. It's not as if we're talking about driver skill or anything.
The amount of effort you put into something is irrelevant if you're making that effort in the wrong direction.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The MIT teams evolution is similar if less extreme. The current car is a moderately streamlined high-deck-and-bubble job with its wheels unshrouded. The 1999 car has a similar body but shrouded wheels.
In fact, more or less streamlined high-deck-and-bubble designs seem to be the theme of this years race. These vehicles look hugely vulnerable to crosswinds.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Let's hear it for Midnight Sun from Waterloo! From their site:
The Team is currently sitting in first place with two meadia[sic] stops behind them. The car has peformed exceptionally well as the team moved from sixth to first during the first day.
Excellent work guys, and good luck to all the teams!
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I have a friend who will be racing in a 2100 mile solar car race in Australia in either August or September. Pretty spiff for a highschool project.
-- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
Thomas Gold's arguments based on thermodynamics have conclusively shown that it is impossible to get free energy from sunlight, hence solar powered cars would never work.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
I was reading the asc site to check on the status of my school, when the site became unbelievably slow. Fearing the worst I looked at slashdot, and sure enough it's the top story. Damn yous guys!
The Dell-Winston Solar Challenge starts tomorrow just outside of Austin, Texas and will be travelling across The South to central Florida...
One big surprise was that last year's winner...
Umm, I don't think that means what you think it means.
--
You do the same thing you do if your car runs out of gas - you push it.
Now imagine seeing that - a line of futuristic looking solar cars with guys running behind it pushing it.
I live in Claremont, and as such, got to see all these cars come in last year. It was impressive to see what the engineers came up with the power their cars, shaving off a few watts here and there to preserve power (or increase speed :). Lots of very bright individuals were around just chatting with the crowds. I can't wait to see the ending of this race again, just to look under the hoods of those human bakeries.
DOE = Dumb Ass!
Regardless of what Slashdot's headline might imply, the SunRayce, or "the American solar challenge" is only a trial race for the real Momma-Jamma; The World Solar Challenge in Australia. http://www.wsc.org.au/ This is not an opinion. If you are even remotely interested in building a car that is even sort-of worth your time, you are building for the worlds, not some kiddy PR Race on side roads with posted speed limits.
Why the Gripe? Because the mo's at DOE have the race going East-West not North-South. (The worlds go from north to south, away from the equator - with the sun to your back) So if you build a car to preform well in the worlds, It wont do as well in the US. You either shape your car to maximize sun going from the left to right in the back of your car, or from back to front on the left side of the car.
This has always been a conflict with the American race. They want to increase PR and have the race go through big towns, but engineers want a race that maximizes sunlight to the car. When you are building a car with a materials costs that are close to or more then a million US dollars, every extra bit of energy counts. And when you have that many sponsors, they will expect a good return on their investments. You gotta win, and you want to do well against the big boys in the worlds.
Next race, they'll probably have the race go through a rain forest or something....
Must be a bunch of UM grads running this thing.
(so why the lack or flexibility? 'cause it's a kiddy race. Wanna see some real cars? goto the worlds.)
-grumble
Shameless plug for my alma mater: Go Team PrISUm!
The website that is linked to in the original post is out of date. The Official Website has more information.