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American Solar Challenge Racers Head For Canada
coondoggie writes "Solar race cars this week began their nine-day,
2,400 mile chase from Dallas to Calgary, Alberta using only the sun for fuel. The 24 teams in the American Solar Challenge race are mainly US college teams including entries from MIT, Ohio State and Northwestern. The University of Michigan's Continuum car is the defending champ, having won the Challenge in Australia last year. The University of Michigan has won four out of the eight North American Solar Challenges it has entered with its team of more than 100 engineering students, who have vowed to defend their title this year."
Hail to the Victors!
Beat OSU!
Here are some photos I shot of the teams preparing their cars the day before the rally started in Plano, Texas.
North American Solar Challenge 2008 prep day photos
Michigan won the 2005 American Solar Challenge race by about ten minutes over Minnesota.
My team won the 2005 American Solar Challenge for the stock class, edging out Berkeley by 26 minutes.
They're having a solar race... in Canada?
In 2001 the Nuna of the Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands, participating for the first time, was the fastest.
In 2003 the Nuna 2, the successor to the winner of 2001 won again, with an average speed of 97 km/h (60 mph).
In 2005 the Nuna team scored a hat-trick with their third victory in a row; their Nuna 3 won with a record average speed of 102.75 km/h (63.85 mph). Aurora finished in second place followed by the University of Michigan in third.
In 2007 the Dutch Nuon Solar team scored their fourth successive victory with Nuna4 in the challenge class averaging 90.07 km/h (55.97 mph) under the new rules, while the Ashiya team with their car Tiga won the race in the adventure class under the old rules with an average speed of 93.53 km/h (58.12 mph).
But it makes sense, with the average Dutch weather our solar tech has to be really good!
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I wouldn't get all huffy about it, Michigan won't win anyway, Appalachian State has an entry...
Time to drive from Dallas to Calgary - 2 days
Time to negotiate border crossing - 7 days
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
One to turn it on, the rest to shine flashlights on it?
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
As long as the stay away from Quebec, this might work out nicely. If they do, they risk being stalled in the middle of nowhere due to the lack of sun or simply wreck their fragile cars on our beautiful roads.
In June, we had 23 days of rain here. I could hardly power my LED garden lamps more than 15 minutes after sun set.
Environment Canada has forecast a dry and warm summer. Considering that for the month of June, and I quote the EC experts, "we've never seen that much rain recorded history", and that the dry and warm summer trend should continue on, I think it safe to assume we'll have a quite a (boat) ride with the weather this summer.
Unless they build little dams on the car roofs and install water turbines, these will have a hard time here. (understand, a slow - or stopped - time).
I think this kind of competition is just great, what with the innovation which is always spawned by things of this nature.
However, I can't help but notice that although I feel pride for the competitors and feel happy that progress in this direction is taking place, the public interest seems lacking. And I don't just mean Joe Shmoe is unamused: at the time of this posting the article has been front page slashdot for 5 minutes with 1 comment.
Is it because these vehicles, while being great proofs of concept, do point out the current weakness of real-time solar power? Are the cars just too lightly built and cheesy looking?
Perhaps a way to capture more popular attention (and thus imagination) might be to have a Solar "Charged" race. This would catch more interest I think.
Stipulate that the vehicles must charge their batteries using solar power and utilize only the power they have derived from the sun. This would allow high-performance electric cars to be showcased doing their sports-car killing speed runs whilst whining by like a flying saucer.
If there is one thing the scientists and geeks need to evolve, it's a better sense of PR.
If you need evidence that the nerdy are bad with PR just look at some of the scary, weird names used for our creations:
* Linux - sounds like an evil species of aliens - 'run! the Linux are attacking!'
* The Gimp - do I need to say more?
* Ubuntu - beautiful in translation, terrible as a mnemonic for the target 'lay' audience - 'ooo-but what?'
Read my Very Short "Stories"
I'm an engineering student from University of Sherbrooke, a small (30 000 full time students) college in Canada which has 1400 engineering undergrads. For me, a hundred student team looks excessive. I mean, we do participate in these engineering competitions, but there is no way we could have that many people in our teams. Yet, we still have some pretty decent rankings in SAE Challenges, winning some events. There is a very strong difference in funding of these projects between the big and the small universities, but small ones can still manage to win. It's neither the number of participants in a team nor the amount of funding they get that makes winning or losing, it's the passion.
Go Western Michigan! Oh... wait... our car broke already...
Go someone else!
I've always wanted to see a solar powered articulated lorry with battery intermediate systems. If you are going to accept that with solar panels as the only energy input the vehicle will never be ready to use at any time, you might as well build something big that can carry several tonnes of batteries and let you make a respectable length of journey before having to sit in the sun for a month to recharge.
The most important consideration in making PV practical is to reduce $perW. Who cares about efficiency as a goal of itself? If someone was to make 10% efficient roofing tiles at low $perW then you could make a whole roof out of them.
Research really needs to shift more towards $perW.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You can only drive a solar car at midnight if you're above the arctic circle! (By definition, there is no sunset above the arctic circle on midsummer's eve.) A midwinter solar race in Canada might be a problem... but not a midsummer race. A midwinter race in Australia, where everything is backwards, would be perfectly feasible.
Spoken like a true Buckeye.
Moose versus Solar Car would not harm the moose, but it would be unlikely the car would roll again. What sort of technology is being employed for the very serious issue of possible Moose Damage inflicted onto a solar car during a race?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Calgary is one of the sunniest cities in North America in terms of amount of sunshine per year. Southern Alberta is, in large part, a semi-arid region with very low humidity, so the Sun really packs a wallop here due to very low atmospheric extinction. At this time of year the days are also longer the further North you go. Those cars will probably make better time once they cross into Canada than they will in most parts of the U.S..
However, Alberta isn't really a solar energy hot-spot. Wind power is where it's at. Alberta produces more wind power than any other province in Canada. Whichever racers have the foresight to pack a sail will probably make the best time on the last leg of their journey.
those truck drivers drive like hell on US-75 so be careful!!! stay in the right-hand lane whenever possible and the truckers will naturally pass in the left lane (the hammer lane)
I live 60 miles from McAlester i may just drive to BigMac just to wave from the side of the road, i wish you all lots of good luck...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Wow, it was quite a long time ago, but latches I sell, normally used on carbon fiber race hoods I manufacture were donated to the OSU team to latch the top and bottom halves of the car together.
If you are curious, it's these:
http://deftracing.com/aerocatch_hood_pins/index.htm
I just got a msg on the 26th that they were heading for their first race, but forgot to follow up on it... I see it's on it's way... but they may have had battery problems :(
here's the OSU blog with up to date info:
http://oregonstate.edu/groups/solar/
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Ugh...out of the 3 submissions regarding the NASC, the least-accurate and least-timely one is the one that gets promoted to the front page. Sasha Zbrozek, the team lead for Stanford's next solar car, submitted a much better write-up a few days ago when the NASC started.
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
Whats crazy is that the 2nd place team as of this writing is Principia College, a school of only 500 students and no engineering dept or major. If they pull out a win it could go down as one of the biggest upsets in college sports(?) history. Of course they would need to beat a team that has millions in funding and its own satellite for weather data and a team of meteorologists.
I heard from an MIT friend this past weekend that they had to drop out because Michelin yanked support for using their tires at the last minute, and that was going to knock a few other schools out of the race as well.
Ecce potestas casei!
When I'm not at home in Chicago, I'm at my place in Rolla, MO, where I've seen the talented youngsters from Missouri U of Sci & Tech working on their solar vehicle. It's been nearly a decade since I first saw their sun car, and maybe, finally, this country of 300 million hunks of iron junk on wheels is ready to think about other ways of getting to Wal-mart to do their shopping besides relying on fossil fuels.
What do you think, has $4.59/gal gasoline changed any minds yet? My family has downsized to a '95 Mazda that spends most of the time in the garage, but then we live in downtown Chicago where you can walk a few blocks from any point in town and pick up a bus or train in about 5 minutes. Or, and this is what we've chosen, we can hop on our bikes and give the big fungoo to the oil companies (at least when it comes to transportation). Living just blocks from campus or working from home makes it a lot easier, but I'm thinking there are other people making similar decisions to ours. One thing I've learned is that I'm not all that exceptional, so if I can get by without visiting a gas pump every week there are other people doing the same.
Getting back to the solar car race, I just hope the media makes the story more than just an end-of-the-newscast cute item. We need to learn there's other ways to do things, and it feels so good when I cruise by the gas stations on my bike. I like to see the sad faces of the doofuses in their '07 Escalades or Tundras or whatever they're calling those stupid locomotives-on-rubber these days, as they watch the numbers fly by on the gas pumps. Fuck 'em for being stupid, I say. Plus, it makes them a little less cocky and agressive when it comes to sharing the street with my infinite-miles-per-gallon velocipede. Maybe at some point I'll start to have a little human sympathy and understanding for them. But not yet, not yet.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Where the hell is Carnegie-Mellon? How can you even think about having a car race like this without inviting them?!?! Or maybe they didn't invite them because they wanted the other teams to actually have a chance? ;-)
That would actually be interesting if they ever encountered tail winds and could adjust the angle of one of the panels to act as a sail, or even the canopy. Would be a nice "sleeper" bit of tech to surprise the opposition.
Lots of real-time info available on the solar car race here: http://friendfeed.com/rooms/nasc-2008
I don't know what they're using as criteria for 'entered', but the one race I was in, they had a wheel failure in qualifying, and didn't even make the starting line.
Of course, whoever's dumb idea it was to finish in Golden, CO should've been shot -- uphill climb, after 2 days of cloudy weather ... with parts of the race route on the Denver beltway ... we were told to collect the cars w/ trailers, as there was too much rubber necking as rush-hour started.
(of course, they also thought it was a good idea to give us an 'alternate route' for the trailers and support vehicles that on one day, included a ferry. And on another day, was more than 2x the race route, passing through 2 states the race didn't.)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Michigan was poised to win the 2007 World Solar Challenge until they crashed into their lead support vehicle. Their lead had to break hard after being cut off by STANFORD's support vehicle, which was panicking after they lost their solar car in the heavy Darwin (Australia) traffic. Next time your team enters an international event, please practice driving your race caravan in traffic.
Congratulations on winning the 2005 stock race on a car largely based on Michigan's (embarrassing) 2003 car- one of your lead mechanical designers was a UM veteran.
Sorry about the flame- I am an ex-UM member and am still a little bitter.
i'm find it fascinating that the rules state that the cars are only allowed to run on global thermal energy - which includes wind, EXCEPT for any power stored in the batteries at the beginning of day one.
if i read this correctly, the team with the most efficient batteries (and/or greatest battery capacity) has a tremendous advantage.
an even more interesting race would start with all cars at a zero-charge, i think.
The last 4 true world challenges where won by a dutch team.The University of Michigan's Continuum car is not the current winner of the Australian championship. Please amend to quote.
But your team isn't in this race...
Oh right, you flipped your car. My condolences. /evil
using only the sun for fuel.
Um, besides the Sun our only other fuel sources are nuclear and geothermal, both of which, for the most part, come from the star (or stars) that preceded the Sun.
In case you're wanting to argue with me that gasoline, coal, natural gas, etc. are also other fuel sources: Fossil fuels come from plants who got their energy from the sun. Wind and water power are also powered by the Sun.
</thinking with the anal retentive geek>
Sorry about the flame- I am an ex-UM member and am still a little bitter.
I can see that.
Solar car is about building experience and becoming better at what you do. You can't fault a guy for learning from his mistakes and doing things better the second time around. What is an education for?
UM has lost focus of the spirit of the event. This is a race, but it's not a race to a finish line. It's a race to learn as much as you can in the limited time you have as an undergraduate in a club activity.
Michigan wants so badly to win that they realize needlessly risky designs to pursue fleetingly small perceived advantages. Gaming the race framework and then blaming the outcome of borderline engineering on others is bad form and is representative of the poor sportsmanship that has given the team such a bad reputation in the solar car racing community.
Now, that is not to say that everyone on the UM team is a bad person. There are many fine engineers and upstanding people on the UM team, but their good work, high spirits, passion for the sport, and good conduct are easily eclipsed by the few members of the UM team that don't hold those values as highly.
I would like to point out that the race officials concluded that Stanford had no culpability in Michigan's accident. Observers from both teams provided the details to reach that final decision.
Maybe next time UM shouldn't use brakes designed for a bicycle on a solar car.
Here...
www.engineering.iastate.edu/news/news-article/article/1815/5828.html
Footage from their brake failure...
http://www.me.iastate.edu/index.php?id=6082
Because of course nobody knows where Calgary, Alberta is ;-)
-- Boycott Shell
I thought both the start and the destination was somewhat ironic for this type (solar) race. It wasn't mentioned in the article why these two places were chosen, perhaps because they get a lot of sun.
However when I think of Texas I think big oil, and when I think of Alberta I also think of big oil. They are probably two of the largest producers of oil (land based) in North America. Perhaps this figured into the decision as to the selection of the cities. Anyway I hope the irony was not lost on them.
Woot! Go Rolla!
mmmmmm....orchestrated insanity
Here...
Coverage of Sol Invictus
Running into brake problems...
http://www.me.iastate.edu/index.php?id=6082
Solar power-- and presumably, gravity. Unless they've found a way to cancel that out, to make the competition more fair. In which case, keep your silly solar powered car. I want a gravity canceller.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
After using public transportation and bicycle for 8.5 years, 6 months ago my back problems and a few severely cold days convinced me to into buying the smallest used SUV that I could afford (found this most comfortable to drive among all the cars I tried). It gives me 21 MPG in my pothole-ridden ever-under-construction traffic-choking city called Cambridge. Even so, I drive relatively less, but the gas prices are pinching me.
The only thing I wish for is this: Instead of aiming for perfection in terms of gas usage (MPG) why doesn't the industry make solar-gasoline hybrid cars?
They can put as many rechargeables as in a Prius. The solar-gas hybrids could charge then their batteries while parked out in the sun. Hell, could even supplement even a bit of power (however little) into the AC.
Don't be so bitter. We can't win them all. I consider building the body of the Maize & Blue (winner of '93 race) and doing the wind tunnel testing the highlight of my engineering days at Michigan. And I am ecstatic that Michigan has kept up with the early solar car race successes. Go BLUE!!!
I'm not sure the rules in a solar race allow for wind sails, but even if they did the weight penalty of carry the sail all the way from Texas combined with the fact that the prevailing winds across the Canadian praries from Winnipeg to Calary are westerly, and the the cars are going the wrong way.
Technology is most abused by the very people it was created to help
Actually I remember a graph from the race last year (or the year before?) showing that the speed in Alberta was about half what it was in Arizona. Southern alberta might have more hours of sunlight because of the latitude, but the sun is at more of an angle, so the light is dimmer.
Hands in my pocket
Hey Seattle, this is Furqan! It's funny that 18 years after we started raycing, Michigan is still getting a bum rap...
Because the addition of affordable quantities of solar power to a conventional car would make virtually no difference to the running cost. Even if you used say 3 square yards of the best cells available you would be lucky to get 2 kWh per day, roughly equivalent to half a gallon of fuel. But, that array would cost you about $300000. If you send me $300000 I will send you $2 every day in return.
No shit! What Up? This is Choi. How the hell are you? Too bad I can't send a private email...
yeah, the dutch team sponsored by the ESA.. I thought these were strictly college projects, not sponsored by anyone, that is totally unfair.. Stay out of it if you need backers like the ESA you cheaters!!
To be fair, all solar racing teams are sponsored in one way or another--that's the only way that university students can obtain the resources needed to attempt projects of this magnitude. But you are right that Nuon's ESA sponsorship is an unfair advantage--just as an example, for an American team to be able to compete with them, they would need access to military-grade solar technology.