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Education Science

American Solar Challenge 2003 Starts 176

Posted by timothy from the and-they're-off dept.
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."
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American Solar Challenge 2003 Starts More

American Solar Challenge 2003 Starts

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  • That's cool and all...but what happens if they have 10 days of clouds?

    First non-troll post :D
    • > That's cool and all...but what happens if they
      > have 10 days of clouds?

      They go to war with Iraq. Duh!

    • Re:wooha (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      what happens if they have 10 days of clouds?

      Yabba dabba doo?
    • Then I imagine the speeding fines imposed for trying to cover 2200 odd miles in a day will probably negate the prize fund for the winners and put everyone into serious debt for at least a year. Maybe this is why its a biannual event

    • Re:wooha (Score:3, Informative)

      by Wampus Aurelius ( 627669 )
      Funny you should mention that. A buddy of mine is on the Cal Poly team and he was telling me that they had several overcast days last week, which made it impossible for them to complete the final qualifying round, which was to go a certain distance in a set number of days. As a result, there were very few qualifying teams in the stock class race. The judges ended up lowering the distance requirement so there would be more teams in the final race.

    • Happened in 99 (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      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 [formulasun.org].

    • Re:wooha (Score:2, Informative)

      by miratrix ( 601203 )
      Newer and more expensive cells (triple junction, GaAs) can manage to extract power even if it's cloudy. Also, solar cars have maximum power point trackers to extract maximum amount of power from the array as well as battery to run the car off from. For instance, during the qualifier a month back at Topeka Kansas, Midnight Sun Solar Car [uwaterloo.ca] from University of Waterloo qualified for the race running solely off the battery power.

      Cloudy days will put a damper on things and will limit the speed at which the sol
  • Last year's winner not making it through qualifications? Must've been a cloudy day.
    • As a lifelong Michigander, I can safely say that if it were a cloudy day, with all our experience with it, they'd have won.
    • Actually, they had a very good solar array that performs much better than most of the others out there. They had unresolvable problems with their steering. They used a 4-wheel steering system, with the rear wheels controlled by a servo, which was not responsive enough to perform adequately on the figure-eight steering test.

  • Hm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This brings a whole new meaning to traveling by day. :P
  • Gotta love solar power
  • What if there is an extremely cloudy day? Wouldn't that ruin all the fun?
    • depends on how they construct the electrical system, and the level of cloudyness. just an overcast day can still produce electricity.

    • Re:Slight problem? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Klimaxor ( 264151 )
      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.

  • Prize should be bigger (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Hao Wu ( 652581 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @09:41PM (#6431382) Homepage
    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.
    • > 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.

      Umm, in a free-market, free-country, capitalist world, the prize is at least five orders of magnitude larger than that.

      It's not an easy problem.

      Oh, and one old clunker driven by a starving environment-loving artist gives off more pollutants than any 50 modern SUVs.

      • Oh, and one old clunker driven by a starving environment-loving artist gives off more pollutants than any 50 modern SUVs.

        True, but the environmental cost has already been paid in the creation of that clunker. No matter how bad your car pollutes, it is still more environmentally friendly to drive it into the ground than to get a new vehicle.
        • True, but the environmental cost has already been paid in the creation of that clunker. No matter how bad your car pollutes, it is still more environmentally friendly to drive it into the ground than to get a new vehicle.

          Then the prize should be 5 times 50 times bigger! So then NEITHER S.U.V.s nor stupid old cars from pre-1980s will ever drive again.
        • First, it is correct that old clunkers put out way of the smog-inducing pollutants, unburnt hydrocarbons, and whatnot than a modern SUV. So, in terms of the local environment, the SUV driver is doing better.

          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 c

          • Why don't you guys look up some facts?

            My car, a "clunker" is a 1988 Nissan Stanza. It is well maintained mechanically, and it passes inspections easily.
            http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/ 4 410.shtml
            It puts out 7.70 tons a year of greenhouse gases with average driving, getting ~25MPG (I get around 27MPG myself, but I may drive more highway)

            Lets take a modern SUV, like a 2003 Ford Explorer V6:
            http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/18170 .shtm l
            It puts out 11.30 tons of greenhouse gases, and gets 17M
        • That's not really true. You can definately have an older car repaired or the engine replaced with something cleaner and come out well on top. They do recycle most of the stuff, and all of that aluminum, steel, etc will not have to be remanufactured, which is where the real problem is - the original creation of the aluminum/steel.
          • The environmental cost of a new car (or repairing an old car) is not just the parts - another huge cost is the energy needed to run the factories that produce the new vehicles/parts is huge.
            • another huge cost is the energy needed to run the factories that produce the new vehicles/parts is huge.

              Solar power factory should be built by solar power construction company, using solar power android worker.
        • True, but the environmental cost has already been paid in the creation of that clunker. No matter how bad your car pollutes, it is still more environmentally friendly to drive it into the ground than to get a new vehicle.

          Sure. It is more environmentally friendly to drive a vehicle that in one year puts out more air pollution than a new car will do in a lifetime.

          Yes, drive the old car into the ground. Let it leak and burn oil as the seals rot and the piston rings wear. Oh, and you can leak a little anti-f
          • I think part of our difference in opinion comes from different definitions of "clunker." Sure, a '70's Cadillac that causes people to turn their fog lights on whenever it accelerates should not be driven, but there are other cars that many people would consider "clunkers" that are much more environmentally friendly. And nothing excuses poor maintenance, no matter how old your car.
    • Actually, the physics for this doesn't work out. If you figure that the average SUV (my pickup truck for example) has an upper surface area of 7 meters square. Also, the angle of the surface is not ideal wrt the sun. Typical solar cells are less than 10% efficient; but, for argument sakes we'll bump this number up to 15%. This gives you a maximum energy intake of about 1.6 kW which is only 2.2 hp. Battery storage would allow for some additional peak capacity; but, could hardly offset the requirements f

  • what a waste (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mooface ( 674033 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @09:42PM (#6431385)
    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...
    • what is even worse is that there is no real inovation going into these cars. no soar cell research, no testing of new tech that is untested.

      most of the design goes into ultra low weight materials and maximum surface area.

      • Re:what a waste (Score:5, Insightful)

        by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:10PM (#6431529) Homepage
        You're absolutely correct, these engineering students aren't researching new manufacturing techniques. Of course, they're also undergraduate students, typically in mechanical or electrical engineering, from a public university. Of interesting note is that occasionally students get Master's by tackling something like a power tracker system. The design goes into lots of realistic engineering methods. Quite simply, there's a challenge in simply selecting a body shape; one must balance aerodynamics with power generating surface area and weight.

        Quite frankly, you'll never see untested technology being used in these sorts of endevors. Its far more profitable to start a company to research, develop, promote, produce and sell these sorts of technologies. And really, you don't need to race a car in order to test out your newfangled gallium-arcenide solar cells.

        That said, I believe that the well funded Michigan team brought in a researcher from germany for his new process that created mircopyramids or some such, increasing surface area over simple flat surfaces. Of course its incredibly expensive, but being sponsored by half the big motor companies in the area helps out.

        • Re:what a waste (Score:2, Interesting)

          by ferds32 ( 547377 )

          Quite frankly, you'll never see untested technology being used in these sorts of endevors. Its far more profitable to start a company to research, develop, promote, produce and sell these sorts of technologies.

          I beg to differ. Lake Tuggeranong College [act.edu.au] used a prototype CSIRO [csiro.au] motor during two of their three World Solar Challenge [wsc.org.au] (a similar race heald in Australia). sUNSWift [sunswift.com] built their own cells (litterally; if you've ever seen solar cells being built this is a huge achievement) and developed their own

    • Re:what a waste (Score:5, Informative)

      by barzok ( 26681 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:06PM (#6431510)
      At the university I attended, IIRC, they got students from the business school to head up a lot of that stuff for SunRayce. It let the engineering students focus on building the damn thing. Actually had students from several areas of study in the university involved with the project.

      Looks like they're not even in it this year. Not really surprising, actually. The program was going downhill while I was a student there (didn't work on the project myself).

    • Wrong... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by taped2thedesk ( 614051 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:10PM (#6431532)
      I'm a member of the Michigan solar car team, and many, if not most, of the members on the non-engineering projects are from the business school or other academic units.

      In fact, the team makes a huge effort to reach out to non-engineering students, and we usually have excellent turnout.

    • I disagree. Why do they have to be "more discrete projects"? The biggest problem as I see it with engineering is its dismally low profile - most people barely seem to have an idea what "engineering" even means. I'm all for anything that will raise it's profile. And I really can't see anything wrong with teaching engineers that it's ok to take the lime light, at least a little anyway.

      bah, just my $0.02

      • most people barely seem to have an idea what "engineering" even means.

        Yes, indeed.

        It was explained to me a while back just why it is that doting mothers like to be able to say "my son the doctor" or "my son the lawyer" and not "my son the engineer" - the same reason for the lack of recognition and widespread esteem for the engineering profession.

        The reason is that doctors and lawyers, professionally trained, offer their services retail direct to the public.

        Engineers, professionally trained, rarely off

    • Re:what a waste (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tsangc ( 177574 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:16PM (#6431560)

      It's sad that many engineering students end up doing things like PR, fundraisers, etc etc instead of


      I disagree. Proposing an project, selling the idea to stakeholders, marketing, project management etc are all parts of real life engineering. No engineer sits at a desk all day and works purely on technical design work. They're also excellent things to put on a resume for jobs later on.


      That and not everyone wants the same goals out of the project. They might be from other parts of the university like the business school or students who are looking to do something more people oriented instead of their normal engineering studies.

  • Now ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by BlueTrin ( 683373 )
    ... you know the truth about route 66/Area 51 experiments and UFOs ...

  • Some Results? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Talking Goat ( 645295 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @09:46PM (#6431403)
    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.

    • Re:Some Results? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by xenocide2 ( 231786 )
      The payoff is experience. Undergraduates get real world experience designing, building and testing cars. With the growing need for alternative power cars, and the testing of the market, "regenerative braking experience" might be something to put on a resume for the budding mechanical engineer.
    • I hate to this that all this effort was being expended without any extrapolation into regular, everyday technological usage.

      Here is a bunch of kids whose masters and doctoral theses might not be great big contributions to the quality of human life. Is that really so shocking? Aren't most theses pretty obscure and insignificant? Mine sure was.

  • 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.

  • Kind of Ironic (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Infinite93 ( 664963 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @09:48PM (#6431415)
    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?

    • Re:Kind of Ironic (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Klimaxor ( 264151 )
      by that means, everything is counter productive when it comes to solar power research. lets see
      Computers are used for CAD draw-ups, those computers were transported using some kind of fossil fuel. I don't really see how "student time spent" really falls in that catagory though. Without spending time, there is no research, without research, there is nothing new, and when there is nothing new, life just plain fucking sucks.
    • True, but doesn't your criticism apply to just about everything people in the first world do? According to your logic, our only recourse is to not get out of bed in the morning.
    • ...think of all the non-renewable time and energy devoted to this type of event. Materials fabrication, student time spent, assembly.

      You think these things grow on trees?

      Which kind of time is renewable?

      Gasoline is a renewable resource. It just takes a long time for a specific carbon atom to be subducted under the crust and emerge again.

  • "last year's winner..." "every two years"

    You editors are really slipping here...
  • Can they use wind power (at night) or sterling engines?

    I couldnt find any rules posted at the official website.
  • this [bbc.co.uk] looks more like the future of motoring
    • Its very large windshield would be more expensive to replace I would think. As far as looks, in my opinion it does share some similarities with cars on the market right now. I am reminded of the Nissan Z350 and the Pontiac Aztek.

      Also, I think it would be sweet to drive one of those without the shell at all. Like an extreme convertible. The dangers of that would be obvious to a 6 year old, but people would do it if they could.
      • Thats the real beauty of this car, friendly to the environment, choice of shells, and no doubt it will provide several highly entertaining Darwin award nominations
  • gnarly little solar vehicle. designs havent seemed to change much for many years.

  • The missing link

    1. Connect solar panel to battery terminals of flashlight
    2. Point flashlight at solar panel
    3. Turn on flashlight
    4. Profit!

  • Why Michigan Is Out (Score:4, Informative)

    by heli0 ( 659560 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:08PM (#6431517)
    "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 [wsc.org.au] 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 [umich.edu]

  • UM Solar Car Team statement (Score:4, Interesting)

    by taped2thedesk ( 614051 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:12PM (#6431541)
    I'm a member of the UM Solar Car Team - they sent the team members and sponsors this message a few hours ago:

    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.

    Although not being able to compete in this summer's ASC was devastating to all those involved with the project, the team is committed to using this experience as a building block for future success.

    This is not the end for SpectruM! According to ASC race officials, SpectruM is "one of the most advanced and innovative Solar Cars ever built."

    During the next month, the team will be displaying SpectruM and the team's sponsors at the Concourse D'Elegance auto show in Cranbrook, the Woodward Dream Cruise and the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City.

    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.

  • Neat idea, but expensive (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pctainto ( 325762 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:16PM (#6431563) Homepage
    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 [formulasun.org]
    • My roommate is actually a member of Cal Poly's [calpoly.edu] Solar Car Team [cpsolarcar.com] (website waay out-dated, beware). I'm incredibly surprised to find out they're in the race. I haven't seen my roommate since school ended, but at that time they were rushing like mad to put the car together and my roommate didn't think they'd make it. They decided to scrap their old car and build an entirely new one for this race, but they didn't get started until this year.

      The funny part is that I've met the guys who work on it, I've seen their
    • 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
  • 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.
  • According to the rules, participants must listen to a looped version of the Official Theme Song [formulasun.org] the entire 2300 miles....

    That's rough.

    Seth

  • A sighting (Score:3, Informative)

    by WillWare ( 11935 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:22PM (#6431591) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • Two Years? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Gleng ( 537516 )
    The American Solar Challenge, which is only held every two years.

    Every two years, eh? Does that mean the previous challenge's entrants just keep going when they reach the finish line?

  • The problem I have for this race.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DonaldBeckman817 ( 587451 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:26PM (#6431606)
    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.

    • new technologies (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Fred Ferrigno ( 122319 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:46AM (#6432170)
      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.
      • 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.

      • Maybe they should have two classes. A "traditional" class which must conform to all of these rules (and be stuck in 1995), and an "unlimited" class, which has very few (if any) non-safety related limitations.

        Heck, did you see how they're even outlawing technologies that people are commonly using today, like NiMH batteries? When you can buy the technology at Target (the best rechargable batteries are the NiMHs), I think they should allow it in the race.
    • I agree on that! The vehicles in this race doesn't sport the type of regenerative system to keep the battery charged like what you see on the Toyota Prius (original and the upcoming 2004 model). I think the organizers of the World Solarcar Challenge should eventually allow regenerative systems because that will allow the solar-powered car to go a long way even if the sky is cloudy.

  • UM Solar car speculation... (Score:5, Informative)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis&ubasics,com> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:30PM (#6431621) Homepage Journal
    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 [umich.edu] 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

    • Energy Budget (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bios_Hakr ( 68586 )
      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
      • You've never been in the south have you? When it's 95 degrees and humid, not having A/C is NOT an option.
      • Gee, you must be right. There's absolutely no way a servo mechanism could possibly be nearly as energy efficient as a mechanical linkage.

        Unless, of course, you think through the problem and discover that it can and is.

        But why find out, when you can go around indicating that it's not only impossible but stupid to even try.

        If you want to make a statement about human intelligence and preconcieved notions - oh wait, you've already done that.

        -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.
  • Awesome, I should be able to see them race. Now I just need to bring a bucket of mud and a paintball gun. Just kidding....but actually now that I think about it....how cool would it be to have a video game with people racing in solar cars, and your job is to cover them with paint and mud to try to slow them down and obscure their vision so they crash? Errr......its late......sleep..............

  • 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.

  • Well (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PHPhD2B ( 675590 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:00AM (#6432009)
    If they have clouds? Well, mostly clouds do not equal complete darkness ... the fact that photovoltaic cells are frequently called solar cells does not mean that you have to see the sun in the sky for them to work ... they are cells, meaning they convert light into electricity. Cloudy -> less light -> less electricity but NOT a standstill.

    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.

  • Go, Missouri Miners! If your solar car can get you out of Rolla, just keep going!
  • It uses stored solar energy in a form called "gasoline".

    Bet it would do pretty good in this race, too.

  • 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
  • Nature also wrote an article [nature.com] about the American Solar Challenge 2003. This summary [weblogs.com] of Nature's story contains photographs coming from the ASC Photo Library [doe.gov], but read Nature's article for more technical details.
  • As usual, the Solar Race winner, which traversed the course, in a single day is Sol.

  • Aerodynamics? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Simon Brooke ( 45012 ) * <stillyet@googlemail.com> on Monday July 14, 2003 @05:32AM (#6432903) Homepage Journal
    What surprises me is it looks to me as if these cars are getting less, not more, aerodynamic with time. Take the Eclipse [etsmtl.ca] team. Their Eclipse 1 and 2 vehicles look like a solar car I would design - teardrop shape low to the ground with enclosed roadwheels. Their three and four designs are essentially flat plates relatively high above the road with a bubble in the middle for the driver, and in version four the road wheels are unshrouded, and there's no attempt to round off the body edges to reduce vortices.

    The MIT teams evolution is similar if less extreme. The current car [mit.edu] is a moderately streamlined high-deck-and-bubble job with its wheels unshrouded. The 1999 car [mit.edu] 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.

    • Re:Aerodynamics? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by |>>? ( 157144 )
      That would be because at low speed, Aerodynamics is mostly a waste of time. If you hit 100km/h, then it begins to matter.

      This is why when Porche made it's self-erecting spoiler, it only popped up at 140km/h - so people started speeding - so Porche did a firmware upgrade to make it come up at 100km/h.

    • Re:Aerodynamics? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jollespm ( 641870 )
      I did computer simulation for a car on SunRayce. The single most important variable in the design of the mechanics of the car is weight. You could have made the car look like a brick and it wouldn't have mattered, if it was light weight.

      Our car was tested in a wind tunnel and had a CD of 0.05 or something crazy like that. For reference, most modern automobiles are in the .25-.32 range. Unfortunately for our car it was heavy.
  • Let's hear it for Midnight Sun [uwaterloo.ca] 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!
  • Thomas Gold's arguments [slashdot.org] based on thermodynamics have conclusively shown that it is impossible to get free energy from sunlight, hence solar powered cars would never work.
  • I was reading the asc site to check on the status of my school [umr.edu], 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 [winstonsolar.org] starts tomorrow just outside of Austin, Texas and will be travelling across The South to central Florida...
  • The American Solar Challenge, which is only held every two years...
    One big surprise was that last year's winner...


    Umm, I don't think that means what you think it means.

  • Shameless plug for my alma mater: Go Team PrISUm [iastate.edu]!

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