Mirrors hold the hopes of the 2007 University of Michigan Solar Car Team. The storied student organization with more than 100 members has a potentially game-changing car design for the upcoming Panasonic World Solar Challenge, an 1,800-mile race across Australia that begins Oct. 21.
Continuum, the name they’ve given to this car, is outfitted with U-shaped mirrors that intensify the sunlight, squeezing more energy out of every ray.
“We’re using the best solar technology on the face of the planet,” said Brian Ignaut, race manager and a senior engineering major.
The team’s faculty adviser concurs.
“This is the first time this technology has been applied to a vehicle and it’s truly a breakthrough. It has the potential to revolutionize solar car technology,” said Robert Culver, faculty advisor and industry co-director of the U-M Tauber Institute for Global Operations.
The “solar concentrator system” was designed and built by students. It’s the team’s answer to new rules by race officials seeking to slow the event by limiting the size of the solar array. The cars usually average between 50 and 60 mph during the race, Ignaut said, but they’re capable of closing in on 90 mph.
Most of Continuum is covered with regular solar cells that look like rows of photograph negatives. But the section behind the driver’s seat is lined with ˝-inch-wide solar panel strips that hover over scalloping mirrors.
It’s a calculated risk. But one the students deemed necessary.
The team, which has won the North American Solar Challenge four times, has finished third in the World Solar Challenge three times.
“We came out for 2007 to improve that performance,” Ignaut said. “We knew that we had to really push the envelope to be able to compete at the highest level.”
Twenty five students are in Australia now for the race that’s expected to last five to seven days. Many of them have already been there for weeks, driving the route, looking for potential problem spots and practicing. During the race, drivers take turns in six-hour shifts. For the first time this year, drivers will sit, instead of recline in the vehicle.
The solar car team is one of the largest student organizations on campus, including students from the College of Engineering, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Ross School of Business, the School of Art & Design, and the School of Education.
No matter when they cross the finish line in Australia, the students say being part of the team teaches them things a class cannot.
“Solar Car is something that encompasses your whole life. It’s a student project, but it’s a whole lot more. The hours, the time, the dedication required are so much greater than anything else I’ve ever experienced. It’s like working in a mini-corporation,” said Steve Hechtman, a junior electrical engineering major and solar car driver.
QuickTime Movie:
http://ummedia04.rs.itd.umich.edu/~nis/continuum.mov
Source: University of Michigan
Related stories:
Cambridge University Eco Racing solar car drive across Britain
This year Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) have designed and built the UK's first road legal solar car.
Software Guru: Clean Technology Bigger than Internet
A global response to climate change will spur a business revolution bigger than the Internet, says co-founder of Sun Microsystems Bill Joy.
University of Michigan Wins North American Solar Challenge
The University of Michigan won a highly-competitive 2005 North American Solar Challenge (NASC) today, crossing the finish line at 11:27 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time using only the energy of the sun.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Solar Cars!
High school students from across the country and Mexico are on a 1,600-mile race in hand-built, solar-powered cars. The 10th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge started today in Round Rock, Texas, and will wind its way through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona en route to the finish line at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Cluster listens to the sounds of Earth
The first thing an alien race is likely to hear from Earth is chirps and whistles, a bit like R2-D2, the robot from Star Wars. In reality, they are the sounds that accompany the aurora. Now ESA's Cluster mission is showing scientists how to understand this emission and, in the future, search for alien worlds by listening for their sounds.
Tiny science tests Russia's hi-tech ambitions
In the world's largest country, tiny objects measured in billionths of a metre are the future of the economy -- or so the government claims.
Testing, Radiation Testing: Northwestern Transistors On Space Station
Transistors based on a new kind of material created by Northwestern University researchers have been lifted into outer space on the space shuttle Endeavour and attached to the outside of the International Space Station for radiation testing.
Inflatable electric car can drive off cliffs
It's hard to say what the most intriguing thing about XP Vehicles' inflatable car is. Maybe it's that the car can travel for up to 2,500 miles on a single electric charge (the distance across the US is roughly 3,000 miles).