This past week was the final week of the fall quarter at Principia College.  The solar car team has moved into break housing, and will be living together for the next week as we work on the car and take it to visit the people who helped us build it.  Some of the major projects on the car including installing new turn signals and testing a new design for our brakes.  Since the North American Solar Challenge required a minimum separation for our turn signals which was wider than our car, we had to install them on wiskers sticking out the corners of the car.  Since the World Solar Challenge does not have this requirement, we will remove the wiskers and integrate the signals directly into the body of the car.

In the business office, we’ll be catching up with our mail and email, and getting the fall newsletter sent off.  Feel free to write or call; we’ll on campus until the 23rd.

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As we near the end of the fall term at Principia College, schedules inevitably get busier and busier; nonetheless we continue to make progress on the car.  On Monday, Dugan Tool and Die used their water-jet to cut out the final parts we need to make a new set of kingpins for the car, and at our team meeting we worked on thoroughly reviewing the regulations for the World Solar Challenge and determining what needs to be changed or completed on the car.  Last week, we had Ra 7 on display alongside classic Mercedes and Porsches at the Kemp Auto Museum, where Principia held an event (Principia Coast-to-Coast) to share the institution’s vision and direction for the upcoming years.

Most notable though is the progress of a new telemetry system to monitor the car and assist in determining race strategy.  Two recently graduated team members, Asa Williams and Matthew Piatt, have generously agreed to develop a new system to meet our specific needs.  The project is already producing early prototypes, and we plan to start implementing the designs into the car itself when we come back in January for the Winter term.

Work continues on the second upper body, and we will soon be installing the ribs that provide structural support.  Also, our Fall newsletter is now being finalized, and should be sent out in the next couple of weeks.  If you are not currently on our mailing list, send us an email at solar@principia.edu and we’ll be happy to add you to the list.

Thanks for reading!

Tom Brownell, team leader

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Earlier today, Principia College President Dr. Jonathan Palmer gave the team his approval to participate in the 2009 World Solar Challenge, a 4,000 km race across the Australian outback following the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Adelaide.  This will be the team’s second time in the race; in 2003, Ra V placed 6th.

With a firm target in mind, we will start making the arrangements to race overseas.  I hope to post a list of parts, equipment, and resources that we will need that could potentially be donated (please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any ideas to support this opportunity).  More details about the race and our participation will appear in our upcoming newsletters.

Last weekend was Homecoming at Principia College, and we were able to have the car on display at the football game.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by!  Next week we will be visiting the Rotary Club of Alton, and displaying the car at Principia Coast-to-Coast.  As always, we appreciate everyone who has, and continues to support our project and our goals.

Tom Brownell

Team Leader

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This has been another week of progress for the new upper body. Last Saturday, the body team did a layup of the inner skin of the upper body. The new members of the team are now getting the hang of layups. This week’s goal is to trim the upper body to shape, make ribs for the upper body, and start to make a new rear section of the lower body that will later be permanently adhered the new upper body.

Last week, we also got the opportunity to give a presentation to Principia’s Autumn Session participants. Steve Shedd, a faculty adviser, gave a power point presentation about the history of the solar car program here at Prin. Afterwards, several team members stayed to answer questions. The Autumn Sessioners were all excited to hear that we had a newsletter that we send out once or twice each quarter. (If you would like to receive our newsletter, email your name and address to prinsolar@principia.edu.)

This Saturday is Homecoming, and we will have Ra 7 on display on the practice football field from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm during the Homecoming football game. Several team members will be there to answer questions. Hope to see you there!

Peter Chaney

Car Leader, Principia Solar Car

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This week, work continued on the new upper body.  Car leader Peter Chaney has been leading group workshops teaching new members how to work with composites (with the help of the older members), and assembling the layers of the new body part.  So far, the first two layers of carbon are done, the honeycomb core has been laid in place, sanded, and vacuum-bagged.  All that remains is the last two layers of carbon fiber, and then the body team will pull out the lower body mold to make the section of body that attaches in the rear of the upper body.

Up in the office, the business team has been working hard to put together a proposal which we will submit to the school in regards to our participation in the 2009 World Solar Rally.  Racing in a country on the other side of the globe is a major undertaking that will require a lot of support from on and off campus.  Besides finding the funds necessary to ship the car and the team around the world, some sort of plan will need to be worked out so that being off-campus for a couple of weeks during the middle of the term will not affect their other course work in a negative way.

We are also hoping to utilze the fact that this Fall term will be finished a week and a half before Thanksgiving, and keep part of the team on campus during that time.  Having opportunities to devote extended periods of time to the project without having a full course-load outside of solar car is extremely helpful, and we hope to use the time for a variety of projects, including sending some students to training seminars for our NX computer-design program, taking the car to visit local shops and businesses that helped us to build parts of it, and focusing some time on fund raising and sponsorships.

Tom Brownell

Team Leader, Principia Solar Car

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Hi All–

The outreach event at the Green Homes and Renewable Energy Festival in Mid-Town St. Louis was a success; thanks to everyone who stopped by to see us.  The car was on display from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, along with about 65 other booths that were selling, promoting, or advocating green and sustainable practices.  Twice during the day, children participated in a solar car race of their own, racing solar cars built from kits down the middle of the street.  The kits included axles and wheels, a rectangle of corrugated plastic for the body, a small motor connected to an axle with a rubber band, and a solar cell to power the motor.  After each of the races, the winning builder and their car got their picture taken with our team and our car, as well as a group shot of all the solar racers.  Several groups of students and faculty from both Principia’s St. Louis and Elsah campuses also stopped by our booth, as well as a few of our sponsors.  Thanks again to everyone for their support!

This week, work continues on the second upper body of the car.  Amoung other things, we are also working on designing a new kingpin as an improvement to the car, and looking for someone with a waterjet to cut out a couple of small parts for our current kingpin.  Our next outreach event will be at Principia College’s Homecoming weekend.

Thanks for reading,

Tom Brownell

Team Leader, Principia Solar Car Project

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We had many highlights during this past week; bad battery cells in the battery pack were replaced with new ones, construction began on a second upper body, we got to share the car with the Principia Trustees’ Council, and Peter drove the car under its own power for the fist time since Calgary!

Saturday was a busy day for us, and we had about a dozen new team members along with several other members down at the solar car shop to wet out and lay down the first two layers of carbon fiber for what will be a second upper body.   The new top will not have any solar cells on it, and will be used for driver training and short test drives to help make sure that we don’t damage any of the very important (and very expensive) photovoltaic cells.

After laying down the carbon fiber in the upper body mold, the team got cleaned up and we drove the car up onto the Pub Patio for a chance to show the car to the Trustees’ Council, a volunteer group which is devoted to supporting Principia through contact with its donors.  Everyone seemed excited to see the car, and we received a very warm reception.

This week we will continue work on the new upper body, and get the car ready to showcase this Saturday at the Green Homes and Energy Festival.  Hope to see you there!

-Tom Brownell

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Hello!

The team is back on campus, and gearing up for an exciting quarter.  After finishing the North American Solar Challenge at the end of July and visiting Banff National Park as a team, the car headed back to campus as the team members headed off to finally start our summer break.

One week of classes have now gone by, and we’ve recruited some great new students to the team who are quickly learning all about the car.  This quarter will give us a chance to put the last finishing touches on the car that were not finished in time for the race, as well as share the car and our experiences with the community.  Many thanks are due to our supporters, and we hope to give as many of them as we can a chance to see the car.  Already, we have been interviewed by KMOV Channel 4 St. Louis (to be aired as part of a segment on “green” energy), and we have outreach events planned in Alton, St. Louis, and within the Principia community.

What does the future of Ra 7 hold for our team?  As of this point, the team has decided that we would like to race the car next October in the 2009 World Solar Challenge, a 3000 km race across the outback of Australia.  While the details have yet to be worked out, the team is excited about this opportunity and has already begun to work on the slight modifications that are necessary to compete in the Australian race.

Thanks again for your support!  Feel free to call or email us with any questions or comments; we’d love to hear from you.

Tom Brownell

Team Leader, Principia Solar Car Team
tom.brownell@principia.edu

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