The University of Michigan Solar Car Team Blog: September 2007

Mock Race Update 4

The race crew has returned to Adelaide after a long mock race and what an amazing experience it was. 2,009 kilometers of testing over 5 days on the Stuart Highway. It's safe to say that we learned more in the past 5 days of testing than we have during any other time with Continuum. With 666 kilometers remaining on our planned mock race course, it's ironic that our testing was cut short due to our encounter with what's conventionally called a dust devil.

Though damage to Continuum was minor, our engineers did not want to risk making delicate repairs with such limited resources in the outback. Once repairs are completed later today, we'll begin cleaning and tuning Continuum before additional testing early next week.

Since words can't capture experiences in the outback, here are a few images from our testing last week:

(Above) The Stuart Highway is a very long, very flat, very straight road. Our mock race looked mostly like this for hundreds of kilometers at a time.

(Above) The road surface is VERY rough and unforgiving. We learned this the hard way in 2005.

(Above) These are two of the 6 vehicles we drove during mock race. The Holden Adventura LX8 on the left is our weather vehicle with the weather fixture lovingly called the "Thunder Box." The Holden Rodeo on the right is our scout vehicle.

(Above) This Holden Captiva is our chase vehicle, bearing the all important "Caution: Solar Vehicle Ahead" sign required of all teams. This is the center of our support crew operation and is filled to the brim with computers, radios, and Wolverines.

(Above) The race passes through a series of 30-minute control stops along the race route. This is a picture of the race crew charging Continuum at the Glendambo control stop.

(Above) Continuum ready to hit the road at Port Augusta control stop.

(Above) Continuum being taped up at the Cadney Homestead control stop

(Above) We deploy our semi trailer evening morning and evening to help give everyone the resources they need to maintain and repair the car.

(Above) When he's not busy predicting and creating the weather, Nate Lehman lends a hand wherever he can. Here he's sewing wheel covers for Continuum. We saw roles blending more and more as the days of mock race progressed.

All race activities are spent on the open road and away from many of the creature comforts we're all accustomed to. Long days of racing, long nights of work, no showers, and rocky ground will wear you thin after a week on the road.

(Above) Chris Hammond from the electrical division looked especially tired.

(Above) Jeff Ferman with the strategy division was strangely and consistently energetic.

(Above) Gerald Giarmo with the electrical division.

(Above) Sarah Napier with the electrical division. Keep in mind that it was 50 degrees F out in the morning.

(Above) Steve Hechtman from the micro electrical division is also one of our three drivers.

(Above) Brooke Bailey and Deanna O'Clair from our operations division cleaned dishes every morning.

(Above) Kristine Cramer from our mechanical division.

(Above) Nate Lehman with our strategy division.

This was a great test run for the Continuum team. The next few weeks will be packed with repairs, practice, and improvements that will build off of the experience we gathered over the last week. We've already completed more pre-race test miles than any of the past three Michigan teams so we're excited to hit the road in Darwin next month.

Go Blue!

Brian

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

7 Comments:

Michael Adams said...: These pictures are giving me flashbacks....Car looks great, though, and good thing that dust devil didn't get the better of you all. We had a scare on Momentum that turned out to be nearly nothing as well. (Wal-Mart parking lot, Austin, Mock Race. Scary stuff) Keep posting pics!; October 1, 2007 at 6:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Looked at Team Nuon's website. Seems like they claim they have the best solar cells, the best solar array, the best solar car, they always win and always will, and they love Ohio State. Okay, my Netherlandish is a little rusty, or perhaps imaginary is the better word. If anyone knows Dutch, I'd be interested to know what their blog actually says.

The Nuna4 looks pretty slick. Two wheels in front, one in back, canopy way in the back. Rear wheel fairing looks fatter than the others. Could they be using rear-wheel steering? With the canopy that far back, how can they see the road in front of the car? Do they have a video camera for close-up work? Most of the array is on the front half of the car. Do they expect the sun to be mostly ahead of them during racing hours? Seems like in Australia's springtime between 12.5 degrees south latitude and 35 degrees south latitude, the sun would be mostly behind the cars as they drive south.

-TC Lambert; October 2, 2007 at 4:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, and love the pictures. Could someone do me a favor and throw Doug in front of a camera? His mom and I would love to see him. You can probably find Doug under the car. He'll be the one with the filthiest shirt.; October 2, 2007 at 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Love the photos.. very cool.; November 19, 2007 at 1:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow, what a great collections of pictures.
I really like them dude.
You really did hard work for placing them on right places.

really cool man.; July 27, 2008 at 3:03 AM
Anonymous said...: loved the photos in there! personally, solar car was a genius creation nowadays. keep up the good work!; September 17, 2008 at 8:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Great pictures of the cars. I wonder when this technology will be more available to consumers for both their cars and their houses. This would dramatically alter carbon output and at the same time save big on fuel costs, heating costs, etc... Could you imagine a time when the average vehicle gets 50 mpg? How about 75 or 100?

Now as to the cars - what about safety equipment that is currently required on our roads like 10 mph bumpers, headlights, etc...? Will these safety features and their added weight greatly alter the performance of these vehicles?; October 30, 2008 at 11:51 AM

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Mock Race Update

We're three days into our mock race and Continuum has already run 1400 kilometers of our 2400 kilometer course. Our first three days on the Stuart Highway have been a definite departure from our testing on tracks and roads in the US. Road trains, 40+ degrees Celsius temperatures, increased solar radiation, and straight/flat roads are just the beginning. It has been great to see Continuum operate in its true habitat. Our array loves the Australian sun, the car remains stable in the constant cross winds, and the telemetry system continues to relay vital information to our chase vehicle. While calibrating and tuning different systems on the car, we've been troubleshooting our windowed fairing system as well as some unexpected steering feedback. We've spent a lot of time on the side of the road working through tire changes and small repairs, many of which are coming with the use of new components since arriving in Australia. The engineers are paying special attention to our front suspension & wheel motor to help understand what's happening.

Our campsite is located just off the side of the road approximately 200 km South of the Northern Territory/South Australia border. Operations has found a field that's clear of all rocks and brush, leaving a clean sheet of powdery red soil for all our equipment, vehicles, and tents. This seemed like the perfect site until winds picked up from the east, carrying clouds of red dust and depositing it in everything...cars, the semi, our eyes, our food, literally everything. Our yellow shirts are now mostly orange. Conditions became so harsh and the sky was so clouded with red dirt that charging was rendered nearly useless well before sunset. After finishing dinner, we saw that all our cups had gathered a small pile of sand at the bottom. Good thing that the punch was already red.

When it's not sand it's bugs and there are plenty here. The tent where we work on the car's array is covered inside and out with gnats and moths, so many that they're almost causing as large of a problem as the sand outside. Many of the systems within Continuum require clean, stable working environments for proper maintenance and we're quickly learning how hard that is to achieve in the outback.

Our drivers are catching much needed rest after long days in Continuum. All are doing well even after spending up to 5 hours in the car at a time. With no air conditioning and temperatures reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius during the day this is a rather impressive feat!

We're very fortunate to have the company of Trevor and Ann Marie Philbey during another trip across the Outback. Trevor is driving our prime mover for the third time since 2001 while Ann Marie prepares amazing food for the whole race crew every day.

We still have a ways to go so we're looking forward to passing along more updates as the days progress.

GO BLUE!

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

1 Comments:

The rebirth said...: OMG HOW COOL! Glad to hear everything's progressing well! Good Luck Team KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!

GO TEAM!; September 26, 2007 at 3:55 PM

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Progress in Adelaide

Today marks the finish of our first week here in Adelaide. After a few long days of work on Continuum, our shop at Prince Alfred College became a home away from home for the whole crew. Continuum occupies the majority of our floor space, its bottom and top halves sitting side by side. A line of desks and computers sit on the far side of the shop immediately facing Continuum’s solar array. The rest of our space is littered with tool boxes, work benches, crates of equipment, and piles of fleet vehicle hardware. The metal and woodshops at PAC have been put to good use by our members and the limited parking space near our building has been filled with Holden vehicles.

Days start at about 7am and last until 11pm with short breaks for lunch and dinner. We’re fortunate to have a strong operations division to keep everyone well fed & rested while still outfitting fleet vehicles with inverters, light bars, radios, computers, and storage fixtures. The engineering division spends their time working on Continuum’s solar array, completing spare parts, and maintaining a handful of the countless systems on the lower surface. The majority of the strategy division spends their days in front of computers (7 so far) working on their strategy software

The race crew has been welcomed by a handful of familiar faces from past visits to Australia. Bob Allan has returned for his 6^th World Solar Challenge with Michigan (which is every time we’ve visited Oz since 1990). In addition to his decades of experience with weather prediction and communications hardware, Bob has brought his son, Tim, to join the 2007 race caravan as well. Roscoe Shelton welcomed a hungry race crew into his house for an amazing barbeque and will be providing us with the tents we’ll call home while in the Outback. Phil McLaughlin and Paul Balestrin have ensured that we’re well taken care of here at PAC. While Trevor Philbey gets ready a week of driving our semi during testing, Ann Philbey is working with operations to arrange meals for our time in the Outback. Chito Garcia, our long time advisor and mentor, has developed many of these Australian relationships over his 15 years of racing with the Team. Despite living in Saline, MI and working for the University as a machinist for 20 years, you would swear that he’s a local to Adelaide. Everyone seems to know him here. I’m not even kidding, as he even had coffee with the mayor—a personal friend—just this last weekend.

Boxes are arriving, wires are being soldered, generators are running, glue is drying, programs are running, and schedules are compressing. A few critical components stand between us and a race ready vehicle and we’ll be spending the next few days clearing these last hurdles. This is definitely an exciting time for the Continuum Team.

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

4 Comments:

Furqan Nazeeri said...: Hearing all these stories brings back grea memories! It's great to see that Chito hasn't lost his mojo (it seemed like everyone knew him when he joined us on his first race back in 1993). That was also back when Mike "The Mayor" Harbisson was the UM team's Aussie guide.

Go Blue!; September 20, 2007 at 8:58 AM
Anonymous said...: Is the concentrator working? Looked at Team Nuon's website. They have a sweet-looking car, two wheels in front, one in the rear, driver's cockpit surprisingly far back, right over the rear wheel, and no solar concentrator. Michigan might be the only one trying it.

Go Blue!
-TC Lambert (Doug's dad) tclambert@gmail.com; September 20, 2007 at 5:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Looks like Australia's Aurora Vehicle Association has entries in both the Adventure and Challenge classes. Team Nuon (Netherlands) has the Nuna4 in the Challenge class. Japan's Ashiya University (their Sky Ace TIGA came in 4th in 2005) only has an entry in the Adventure class. (Michigan's Continuum is in the Challenge class.)

Aurora's website looks like it hasn't been updated for 2007 yet. Could anyone nag them to update it? I'd like to see a photo of their new car.

-TC Lambert (Doug's dad)
tclambert@gmail.com; September 21, 2007 at 4:34 PM
Gertlex said...: @Mr. Lambert, I'd hazard to guess that the Japanese team doesn't have a new car. The 2005 car seems to have been their third in 15 years. (A great looking car though :D)

-E Relson; September 21, 2007 at 6:35 PM

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Route Survey, Part IV

Day 8:

Wake up at the South Australian border. Pretty chilly this morning, once again around 10 degrees C. Speed limit in South Australia is only 110 kph (68 mph) as opposed to 130 kph (80 mph) in the Northern Territory. Less petrol, but slows things down. Drive for a couple hours, reach Cadney Homestead, the 5th control stop for the WSC. 1.5 more hours of driving and we reach Coober Pedy, the Opal Capital of the world. Attractions include opal mine tours, opal shops (the local stuff is primarily white opal, the rest is brought in from out of town), an abandoned movie spaceship, a golf course without grass, the first tree in Coober Pedy (welded from scrap iron from a burned out mine truck), and a non functional 30 foot tall winch called - The Big Winch. There are numerous warning sounds about deep open mine shafts, with graphic stick figure descriptions of all the horrible things that will happen to you if you walk backwards into one. Many of the residents live underground in homes that are decidedly modern, but bored into the local sandstone. Living underground has the advantage of eliminating the need for AC in the desert. The town's name is based on the aboriginal "kupa piti", apparently meaning "white men's holes".

We visit the Big Winch, which is exactly what it sounds like (it is, however on a hill that nicely overlooks the town). At the base of the Big Winch is the twisted metal handle form an older Big Winch, which was apparently destroyed by a cyclone in the 80s. Meet an eccentric, but very friendly, gentleman originally from Hong Kong who shows us his opal shop and rather interesting collection of original, junk-based sculpture. Down the hill to visit the Old Timer's Mine, an opal mine from 1916 that's been turned into a museum. The museum also features an exhibit of an underground home and memorabilia from the town's past, including a sign for the movie theater warning patrons not to bring their explosives inside. The gentleman running the gift shop was very interested in solar cars and we chatted for awhile. Quick lunch and back to the Track.

Primary feature on the road in the area is the conical piles of dirt from the opal mines. Otherwise pretty flat and rocky desert. We enter the Woomera Prohibited Area, a missile testing range which covers an area about as big a Florida - the Stuart Highway itself is unrestricted, but apparently has been closed occasionally for missile shots. We clear the area after 250 km when we reach Glendambo, the 6th control stop. The road turns east along the southern border of the Prohibited Area. We make a shot visit to Lake Hart, a large dry lake which is currently a salt flat. We walk a couple hundred yards out onto the salt, but stop when we see a sign that reads "LASER HAZARD - LIVE ORDNANCE - NO TRESSPASS" so we turn around. Beat a hasty retreat through the clouds of flies (which are annoying but don't seem to bite) and get back on the road.

With the sun setting, we turn off the Track to visit the town of Woomera, the base for the missile range. The town is, appropriately, named after an aboriginal spear throwing device. The Australian military did a great deal of ballistic missile research and weapons testing at this site, including nuclear tests, especially in the '50s and '60s. Australia launched its first satellite from Woomera in 1967. The area is pretty quiet now, though they still launch a few sounding rockets. The town features a missile park with an outdoor display of many of the rockets launched at Woomera, including the crashed first stage of the Redstone rocket that launched the first Australian satellite (some locals found it in the desert in 1990). There is also a nightly astronomy presentation, except on Tuesdays.

It's Tuesday, so we head back to the Stuart Highway and have dinner at Spud's Road House (where they kindly ask you to pay for gas at the bar). Have a steak sandwich "with the lot", which apparently means, "all the salads, bacon (somewhere between American and Canadian bacon), cheese, and a fried egg". Pretty tasty - Nate's "mixed grill" is equally impressive, consisting of steak, beef sausage, bacon, and the requisite fried egg with a tossed salad and macaroni salad. Cholesterol does not count in the Outback.

Stop for our last night in the Outback just south of Pimba (home of Spud's and not much else). Cold again, but thankfully no wind. Two games of euchre (Mike and I soundly defeat Nate and David - Nate and Mike had done the same to David and I the night before).

Day 9:

From Pimba it's only an hour or so to Port Augusta, the final control stop. I see a strange bald man poking around the car. Turns out it's Mike. Fields of winter wheat on both sides of the road, with some nice rolling hills. They look sort of like the default desktop background in Windows XP. Nice view of the Spencer Gulf. Hills will be tricky for the solar car (Momentum ran out of juice in this area in 2005). See an interesting waterway colored pink from the salts. Actually see some civilization on the road every now and then. We're back in Adelaide in the afternoon with time for some food and a visit to Bob's. Back to the hostel where we unexpectedly meet a nice group of guys from Solar Car Team Twente, a Dutch solar car team that is very much cooler in every way than Nuon. They promise to meet us again in Darwin. Off to bed, where we are awoken around 3 AM by the rest of the team arriving.

This concludes the narrative of route survey - obviously we have a lot more interesting stories that I don't have room for here, but feel free to ask questions in the comments or shoot me an email at garrickw@umich.edu. I'll try to update these posts with pictures, so check back occasionally if you're interested.

Cheers,

Garrick

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Ahh those flies. The single thing I miss least about Australia. At least they go away the instant the sun sets.

Keep going strong guys and gals!; September 17, 2007 at 9:41 AM
Anonymous said...: 10 degrees celcius is like very cold. I don't think it has ever dropped that low here. Most people would probably freeze here in Kenya. I thought Kenya and Australia have relatively the same type of climate.; September 18, 2007 at 3:15 AM
Unknown said...: Nice blog, guys!

But this:
"Back to the hostel where we unexpectedly meet a nice group of guys from Solar Car Team Twente, a Dutch solar car team that is very much cooler in every way than Nuon."

How do you know when you've never even met us?

Come by in Darwin for a nice cool bottle of VB, and we'll fix that :); September 18, 2007 at 3:39 AM
Garrick Williams said...: Sorry mate, I told Twente I'd say that after a couple rounds of "bier drinken en kut roepen". The team goes dry in Darwin for race week, but we'll be sure to have a drink in Adelaide to celebrate the end of the race. Winner buys ;); September 19, 2007 at 6:36 PM

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Weather Update

The Weather Team took a giant step forward towards being completely prepared for the upcoming race. After a couple of days of work, and a lot of help from some friendly locals, Weather 1 (the primary weather vehicle) is completely outfitted and race ready. We now have an operational mobile weather station that even the National Weather Service would be jealous of. Mounted atop what has now been dubbed "The Thunder Box" we have more instrumentation than any U of M Solar Team has ever had. A few of the things that you will find affixed to this years weather vehicle are the WeatherHawk 510 weather station, the antenna for the IMet-3100 base station, a RM Young anemometer, an egg-beater antenna, an Eppley pyronometer, and a couple of other communications antennas, and storage for AirGas Great Lakes helium tanks and all of the rest of our "toys". It was a lot of fun to put the finishing touches on the car and now we are filled with anticipation and are itching to get on the road with the team and try it all out.
One of the few remaining bugs that we are currently trying to work out is Australia's form of our F.A.A., C.A.S.A.. Flight restrictions are far more strict than what I had anticipated, and so we are running into a little bump in the road with getting clearance to launch the Kaymont weather balloons and radiosondes that we received from InterMet Systems and the UAV that we had planned on using. Everyone that we have talked to thus far seems very open to the idea and are willing to work with us, so we are conservatively optimistic about the situation.
As soon as we receive final clearance from C.A.S.A., we will begin testing and tuning this setup to make sure it will stand up to the rigors of a 3000 kilometer race. If all goes well, we will undoubtedly have a setup that will turn a lot of heads and set the curve as to what will be considered acceptable for a weather vehicle.
I will be sure to keep you updated when we do begin testing, hopefully in just a few short days!

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

2 Comments:

Furqan Nazeeri said...: Whatever you do, *please* post a photo of the UAV. I've been dying to see this thing since I heard about it at the unveiling...; September 15, 2007 at 8:21 PM
Nathan Lehman said...: Believe me, as soon as we can get that UAV operational, there will be no shortage of pictures of it. We are still trying to get clearance from CASA to test it, but we may try to get it "test ready" here in the next day or so.
Thanks for the interest!; September 17, 2007 at 6:42 PM

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Food in Australia

Let me start out by saying that cooking for 30 people is difficult. Correction: very difficult. I have no idea what the chefs in the residence hall cafeterias go through with cooking for thousands, but I definitely appreciate their work all the more.

For instance, for yesterday's dinner of sloppy joes (which no one in Australia has heard of, by the way), we cooked seven pounds of beef. SEVEN POUNDS! In addition to that, we had to make vegetarian burgers for our vegetarians and half a pound of turkey for those who can't eat dark meat. We also had to mix sloppy joe sauce from scratch without our measuring cups; they were forgotten in the semi trailer at Prince Alfred College. We've made sure to throw those in the car for the next meal, though.

On top of the pure volume of food that we're making for lunch and dinner, the food here is pretty bland. So far we've taken note that the cheeses, pancakes, and vegetarian burgers here aren't as flavorful as those in the U.S. Some food also goes by slightly different names (i.e. Kraft Macaroni Cheese instead of Macaroni and Cheese), and we've had to learn that biscuits refer to cookies and "tasty" cheese is American cheese. Through our many trips to the grocery store we've seen that pop is expensive, they have a wider variety of juice flavors (apple blackcurrant was a hit), and regular customers don't really appreciate when you continuously buy out the bread and bun section.

All in all, we've been doing rather well menu-wise; we've had sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, chicken tacos, sloppy joes, spaghetti... It takes a bit longer than simple PB&J and pasta every day, but it's worth the effort. And thankfully tonight we'll get a break from cooking since Roscoe---a long-time friend and sponsor of the Team---is throwing us a barbecue.

That's all I have for now - time to go organize the semi trailer!

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

2 Comments:

dearmania said...: could the price of pop be influenced by the water shortage?

is juice as expensive as the pop there?; September 15, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Michael Adams said...: Drink only Farmer's Union Iced Coffee. It gets you to get your milk each day, and it's pretty cheap. I think a 2 litre goes for like $5 AUS.; September 19, 2007 at 11:38 AM

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Route Survey, Part III

Day 6:

Day breaks warm and humid in Darwin. We replace the broken inverter with a beefier unit purchased at Bunnings (essentially Home Depot). Mike does 3 victory laps at a nearby traffic circle. Purchase petrol and a selection of automotive fuses. Find the start location after some searching (route book is not terribly specific, though it will probably e rather more obvious on race day). Head out after a bit of fiddling with the gps units and we're off on the official race route at about 11 AM. Roll through the Darwin urban area and start climbing the hills out of town. Hit the steepest hill on the route, Hayes Creek Hill, 173 kilometers out. Doesn't look too bad (fans of Momentum will recall that the hill south of Port Augusta near the end of the race is quite a bit tougher). See a few more brush fires and smoldering patches in the trees lining the highway.

We reach Katherine, the first control stop on the race. At 318 km along the route, Continuum should reach this point late in the morning of the first day if all is going smoothly. We pass Mataranka, site of some famous hot springs, and also where, by any luck, we'll be clear of the clouds from the ocean to the north. It's been clear today from Darwin on. Continuing south, the trees start to thin out. Make a brief visit to Daly Waters, a small community consisting primarily of a petrol stop, campground, and a well-known pub with memorabilia (ranging from souvenir trinkets to ladies undergarments) from visitors around the world. One of these includes a large decal of the University of Michigan seal.

Next control stop is Dunmarra, at 633 km. We eat some sandwiches and are accosted by about half a dozen begging stray dogs. We toss them some bread on the way out. Vegetation consists primarily of low scrub and small trees about as high as a person. This area south of Dunmarra will likely be where the team will stop for the first night on the race, so we begin scanning the road for suitable pull-offs and camping sites. We see a very large, flat, low cloud in the distance to the south, which Nate determines to be a cloud formed around smoke particles from the brush fires. We pull off at a parking area at around 800 km from Darwin, just as the sun is starting to set.

We decide to shave Mike's head. For those unfamiliar with Mike, he's a jolly Armenian fellow with a rather bushy head of curly hair and a similarly bushy beard. After some time and judicious application of scissors, electric clippers, and razors, Mike's head is smooth as a baby's. We determine that he has a well shaped, dome like head, and the look is approved.

Leaving the headlights on to shave Mike and read in the car has drained the battery, and, as of around 10 PM, the car won't start. Without much to do about it at that point, we go to sleep.

Day 7:

Day breaks, and the car starts up. We give thanks for lead-acid chemistry. Back on the road, we fuel up at Renner Springs and then proceed to the third control stop, Tennant Creek at 988 km from Darwin. We should hit this point sometime in the morning of the second day of the race.

We stop and spend the morning climbing the Devil's Marbles, an amazing formation of rounded red boulders. These formed due to natural erosion of a granite slab formed 1.7 billion years ago from an upwelling of magma into the surrounding sandstone. Cracks in the granite allowed water to seep in, eroding the boulders which were further shaped by wind erosion. The resulting formations look as if someone has stacked rounded rocks on top of each other.

We fuel again at Wycliffe Well, which is notable mostly because it was the site of numerous UFO sightings. The roadhouse is decorated with various aliens, copies of old newspaper articles, and a greeting sign that reads "humans also welcome". Two little green men wave from a conical spacecraft that appear to have been constructed primarily from old radio antenna parts. We suspect that the Outback might loosen a few screws after too many years of living in the bush.

Just south of Wycliffe, we hit a section of road that is perfectly straight. For 42 km. Some slight undulations in elevation, but the car is otherwise traveling in a straight line for over 20 minutes. There's not much out here in the Outback. We pass the Aileron roadhouse, notable for a very large statue (even bigger than the koala - see comments to Part I) of an aboriginal man walking on a hill behind the roadhouse. Otherwise its pretty desolate out here.

We reach Alice Springs, the midpoint of the race, at midday. Alice Springs, at about 1500 km from Darwin, will be a "stage stop" in the 2007 WSC, meaning that all vehicles will be held at the stage stop for a day and then re-released in the order they arrived. The fastest teams could be reaching Alice Springs late on the second day of the race, with the rest of the pack arriving on the third day. This puts an interesting wrinkle into strategy, as we will likely have most of Tuesday, October 23 to sit in Alice Springs charging the battery from the sun as we wait for the Wednesday restart.

We get back on the road in the afternoon after restocking our food supplies. About 130 km to the south of Alice, we turn off onto a very rough dirt road to visit the Henbury Meteorite Craters. We arrive after 15 km of washboard roads, washed-out dips, and dodging wandering cows. The craters are the remains of the 4000 year old impact of a meteorite about the size of a fuel drum. The meteor broke into 4 large and many smaller pieces in the atmosphere, and the Henbury site we visited is the location of the 4 main strikes. The craters are quite fascinating - the largest crater is about 180 m across and 15 m deep. It is actually two craters which formed close enough together that the wall between them was destroyed in the impact. Two smaller craters from the other two large pieces of the meteorite flank the main crater. Erosion has worn down the lips of the craters, leaving small valleys with a great deal of vegetation (water collects in the basins, forming a small ecosystem unique in the area). Apparently Apollo astronauts visited these craters in preparation for the moon landings.

After rejoining the highway, we continue south, passing Kulgera and reaching the border between the Northern Territory and South Australia. We set up camp and go to sleep after a little bit of "now I'm in NT - now I'm in SA" hopping about.

-Garrick

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Wow Garrick, once I started reading this article I found I couldn't stop. I once rode a motorcycle from Sydney all the way through to Alice Springs and back down to Ayres Rock. Kinda lonely ride...glad I was riding with a friend. Did you notice how quiet it gets even in the middle of the day when you pull over and turn everything off? Beautiful.

I love reading stories related to solar energy because I work in an industry where we use huge carpet cleaning truck mount machines that pump out incredible amounts of pollution. Unfortunately it's challenging to change when we invest over $50,000 into just one machine. But if there was a way to convert to solar energy I'd be first to change.

Well I look forward to reading more about your trip and what comes next.

Mark Briody
Sydney Australia; August 30, 2008 at 10:52 PM

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Route Survey, Part II

More on route survey, as promised. I'll forewarn you that for some reason the display at the hostel computer is entirely in Japanese, except for this typing window, so things might get dicey.

Day 3:

Awoke early to a breakfast of toast and tea at the hostel. Group heads out and we make our first stop at Dick Smith's electronics to grab an inverter (one of the key pieces of equipment stuck in customs) and some miscellaneous other electronic bits. We then go to Flinders camping to meet Roscoe Shelton, a longtime Australian friend of the team. Roscoe treats us to coffee, gives us our bearings a bit on the Stuart Highway ("The Track"), and kindly asks "what happened on the gridiron on Saturday?". I had hoped we'd gotten far enough away from Ann Arbor to escape that, but it's a small world these days. Roscoe sends us off with some good advice and a pair of two person tents for the trip. Next stop is at the shop of Bob Allan, another longtime contributor to the team and weather / communications equipment guru. We unpack a bit of our excess luggage, get some more sage advice, and get in touch with Chris Selwood, director of the WSC. He agrees to meet us back at Roscoe's to deliver the official route book, which has just arrived hot of the press. After a brief lunch at McDonald's (which is basically the same here, although they do offer a burger with egg), we stop back at Roscoe's to pick up the book. I should note that Roscoe, Bob, and Chris are all fine chaps with many good stories, so this process actually took somewhere around 5 hours all told. With all that settled, we booted up the computer and began the official route survey in Victoria Square in the heart of downtown Adelaide.

We drove north until about 10 PM, with a stop at the Big W and also Woolworth's in Port Augusta (the last WSC control stop) for supplies (lunchmeat, bread, PBJ, water, a cooler, a shovel, TP, etc.). We stop in the pitch dark (the stars are clouded over) at a barren little rest pull-off just north of Pimba. Mike and Dave can't take the cold (it's below 12 C) and sleep in the car (an arrangement which will continue throughout the trip). Nate and I brave the gale force winds and tie the tent to the car to keep it from blowing away. Lightning flashes ominously in the distance.

Day 4:

We awake early to the sunrise and a great view of Island Lagoon, a huge dry lake that stretches to our south (this particular stretch of the highway runs mostly east-west). Enjoy? a quick meal of frosted flakes in the blustery conditions. Standing with back to the wind prevents frosted flakes from blowing off spoon.

Route survey continues north toward Glendambo, the next control stop, with Mike at the helm and Dave manning the survey computer. Arrive at Glendambo roadhouse without incident, press on without stopping as gas guage is still over 3/4. Inverter pops and smells of smoke. Pull off on the side of the road, repairs unsuccessful. After a brief conference, we determine to press on without the inverter, losing the ability to collect GPS data. Will buy an inverter at the earliest opportunity (not too many electronic stores in the outback). This is not too much of a problem, as the return trip GPS data is what will actually be used.

100 km to Coober Pedy, vehicle display shows a remaining range rather smaller than that. No gas stations between here and there. Mike reduces speed to save petrol, but range is still lower than remaining distance. We coast to a stop and remove the luggage from the roof rack to reduce aerodynamic drag. Only a minor improvement in range outlook, so we proceed with AC off at 80 kph. Somewhere just past the sign indicating 20 km to Coober Pedy, range remaining reads zero with the gas needle on empty, but the car is still running. I'm pretty sure I see a wedge-tailed eagle circling. We decide that 2 of us will start walking when the car stops and 2 will stay with the car. We get out the sat phones to stay in contact.

Somehow the car makes it to Coober Pedy (source of something like 90% of the world's opal), sputtering a little bit as we pull up to the gas station. We fill up and eat a quick lunch of sandwiches and red dust just north of town. Continue to drive, crossing border into the Northern Territory. Pull into Alice Springs, the biggest town between Adelaide and Darwin and the halfway point of the route, around 6 PM, shortly before sunset. Everything apparently closes at 6, so no luck with the inverter. Dinner at KFC. Nate asks nicely and gets a free extra chicken wing with his "ultimate burger meal" (Aussies call basically any hot meat sandwich that isn't a steak sandwich a "burger" apparently, so a chicken burger is just a grilled or breaded chicken breast sandwich). Press on northward for a couple more hours, stopping at Ryan Well, a mid 1800s stock watering well. Wind is much less than last night, and the rocks are somewhat less sharp.

Day 5:

A lot of driving. Pass through Tennant Creek and Katherine. Large brushfires create low hanging smoke clouds, which is the closest thing to weather we've seen since the first night (weatherman Nate is bored). Actually see some smoldering/burning trees on both sides of the road. Pull into Darwin in the evening, stop briefly at our hostel. Wash off two and a half days of dirt. Walk downtown for dinner at the Hog's Breath Cafe, experience burgers with beetroot. Sleep on something other than rocks.

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: This is my first comment over here.

I liked this blog entry the most though, the way you said it was just amazing!

See you later ;); September 15, 2007 at 10:25 AM

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Route Survey, Part I

The first crew to arrive in Australia, consisting of myself, David Elmquist, Mike Kezelian, and Nate Lehman, arrived September 4 in Melbourne to complete a GPS survey of the WSC route. Jeff Ferman accompanied us as far as Sydney, then took a side trip to Perth. Having just come in from the bush 2 days ago, I thought I'd take the opportunity to update you on the results of the survey. This will likely come in a couple installments, hence the "Part I".

Day 1:

Arrive in Melbourne ~9:45 AM local time. Clear customs with no troubles. Mike and I grab a cab to Holden headquarters, where we pick up our vehicle - a light blue, 6 cylinder, AWD, 7 seat Adventura wagon. After getting a crash course in Australian driving (stay on the left, mates), we head out, or at least try, as apparently I managed to get the parking brake stuck. Mike puts his weight into it and we're off. Immediately embarrass myself by activating the windshield wipers rather than the turn indicator (the levers are reversed). Mike takes over driving, with no further incidents sans a couple of clipped curbs (that whole wrong side of the car thing again). Arrive back at airport. Stack an absurd number of duffel bags onto the roof rack, load up and head out. Take a wrong turn. Arrive back at airport. Drive off toward the freight forwarder to receive our weather gear that was shipped via air freight. Road listed in Google directions does not exist. Turn around. Arrive back at airport. Ask for directions at gas station. No worries mate, head out towards freight forwarder. Determine that Google directions hopelessly out of date.

Finally arrive at freight forwarder, drop off customs documents. Will return to pick up gear in morning once it clears customs. Visit Big W (Wal-Mart, down here), buy an atlas. Drive to downtown Melbourne and make a short visit to OmniStar, who have generously agreed to loan us 2 high-accuracy GPS units for our survey. Arrive at the hostel, the Pint on Punt, at around 6 PM. Enjoy $10 steak night at the pub on the first floor, then promptly fall asleep at 8:30 PM.

Day 2:

Head to the shopping mall in the morning, purchase SIM cards, pillow, soap. Enjoy lunch - for myself, a mix kebab with all the salads and doner sauce (This roughly translates to a chicken and lamb pita wrap with lettuce, tomato, and onion (all the salads), with a mayo-like lamb (doner) sauce). David is laughed at by food court staff for asking what "tasty" is (it's "american" cheese). Visit freight forwarder, learn that shipment is being held by customs and won't be released until the car crate arrives. Decide to strike out for Adelaide and complete route survey without weather gear. Hit the road, see some great landscapes, beautiful stars (when it gets pitch dark at 7 PM). Arrive at Adelaide hostel (Cannon St. Backpackers) at 10:30 Adelaide time, promptly fall asleep.

This concludes Part I - we'll get days 3, 4, and possibly 5 in the next installment, later today.

Cheers,

Garrick

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

3 Comments:

Unknown said...: lol to driving in Australia.

I hope you all come back with sweet accents!

btw drivers are awesome, go Steve and Spencer! (and Paula, but i don't know you)

Don't forget to have fun!!!; September 13, 2007 at 10:32 PM
Michael Adams said...: And yet no mention of the HUGE koala statue on the side of the road between Melbourne and Adelaide. Though I guess it was too dark to see by the time you passed it. If you ever head back that way, keep a look out.; September 14, 2007 at 6:18 PM
Garrick Williams said...: There is in fact a ginormous koala statue between Melbourne and Adelaide. Also a matter of fact sign that says "truck on pole" and points to a jeep on a pole. Also a large wind farm that nobody but me wanted to go look at. It should noted that the area east and south of Adelaide is an excellent wine region.; September 14, 2007 at 8:01 PM

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Arriving at Prince Alfred College!

Hey Everyone!!

The entire Team was once again brought together at the Cannon Street Backpackers (where we will be staying until we travel to Darwin mid-October) after the last group arrived in Melbourne yesterday afternoon. After a good night's sleep we all drove to the Prince Alfred College to begin our first day of work down under. Our Team was provided with an amazing fleet of cars from Holden which allow us all to travel together with luggage and all. These are also the vehicles that will be used throughout the race. Once we arrived at the college, we spent most of the day setting up our work area and emptying out the crate and semi trailer.

The work area provided for us is great and everyone we meet is always interested in hearing about our Team and helping out anyway they can. The school that we are staying at actually competes in a Solar Cycle competition each year. It's amazing to see how close the final body of their High School Team's bike is to final body of our car.

Everything in the crate and semi was shipped safe and soundly from the U.S. and was cleared though customs without any problems. Unfortunately after unloading the crate and organizing the semi, we found a few items that were left behind. Thankfully, our home-operations Team is able and ready to find and ship everything that we're missing.

Thanks for reading, be sure to look for more updates later this week and feel free to post your own comments and questions if you have any!!!

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

3 Comments:

Unknown said...: We are Spencer Bailey's Grandparents and would just like to let you know that friends and family across the UK are excitedly following the team's progress.
We all join in wishing you a fantastic race.
Mary and Peter Bailey; September 13, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Anonymous said...: All the best, team!; September 13, 2007 at 6:11 PM
Anne said...: Best of luck to the entire team, what a thrill after all these months of preparation! Glad to hear everything arrived safely, and many thanks to the supporting home team!!

Kristine's Family (Mom, Dad, Andrew, and both Grandmas); September 13, 2007 at 7:38 PM

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Greetings from Melbourne!

Well, it's Monday night here in Melbourne (Monday morning for most of you folks) and the six of us have just arrived back at the hostel from dinner. Evan, Richard, and myself arrived Saturday morning, and we've joined Brian, Brooke, and Roxanna in their preparation for the team's trip to Adelaide. In addition to continuing to work with the customs agents and freight forwarders to insure that the semi trailer and car crate clear customs and quarantine, we've done a bit of company calling and networking as well. Our days haven't entirely been filled with work, though; we've walked around a market, gone to the pier, and listened to some live bands downstairs in the hostel. We've also encountered flight attendants who have questioned the actions of our football team, airport customs agents who have asked if we checked the solar car in our luggage, and random passersby who shout that Penn State or Minnesota is better. (We've also heard "Go Mitchinigan!" as we've walked by.) Oh, and I couldn't tell you the number of times we've been asked if we are the entire team.

Upon arriving at the hostel and discovering that there wasn't any internet access, we've had to scope out the surrounding areas for "free" wireless. Yesterday we came across this little pizza place down the street that advertised free wireless in their window. Since we are college students on a nonexistent budget, we were too cheap to actually go inside to access their network; instead, we sat outside at one of their picnic tables and set up our laptops. (Okay, I lie - I did give in to guilt and purchase an iced chocolate. Don't ask me what it was, though, because I paid more attention to my emails than to the drink.) Although to our credit, the place was too small to have actually hosted our group in the first place.

As we sat outside, we were surprised to find that six people in matching jackets huddled around four computers at a single picnic table drew quite a bit of attention. A woman named Georgina was among the many that stopped to comment and showed interest in our project. Her interests include car racing, sustainability, and innovation, and she has kindly offered us assistance while here in Melbourne. She has a surprising number of contacts that may be able to help us out with some last-minute production, and she joined us at dinner tonight to further discuss such connections. With a background in industrial design and Formula 1 racing, we're hoping that something will pan out.

Tomorrow will be a pretty big day and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it. Granted, it won't be as long and tiring as the day of travel that awaits my Engineering teammates (who are the final group to leave the U.S.), but it will still be rather hectic. The plan is to check out of the hostel by 6:45 am and head straight to Nippon after breakfast for the quarantine inspection of the car crate. Once that's done, we'll transport the crate to a Ford storage facility nearby where a few of us will remain to roll out Continuum and unpack the crate. While we do that, Roxanna and Brooke will go with Trevor--the team's semi driver--to the ocean port to clear the semi trailer through quarantine. They'll then meet back up with us to load everything into the semi, and we'll be on our way to Adelaide.

That said, I better get some sleep. Good night!

P.S. Is it pure coincidence that we've heard "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen twice today?

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

4 Comments:

yodamom said...: Glad that you all made it there safely. Any word from the strategy group? Last I heard from Garrick was about a week ago. They were leaving Adelaide to survey the race route.
Good luck to all...Enjoy the ride. ---Garrick's MOM; September 11, 2007 at 7:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Geeze... I commented to Gerald on Saturday, about how nice it would be that Australia doesn't care about American football.

Guess the whole world's spreading the ridicule :(

•Eric; September 11, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Unknown said...: Trevor is awesome. Make sure you tell him hi from the 2001 team!; September 13, 2007 at 2:25 PM
Anonymous said...: That's not right that they question you just based on the actions of your football team. Over on the comments there are other people and students reporting the same problems.; October 21, 2008 at 2:38 PM

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Team Members Arriving in Australia

The second group of race crew members has arrived in Melbourne and we've been busy preparing for the receipt of our equipment here in Australia. Both the race semi and air crate will be arriving at port tomorrow (Saturday) and will be cleared through customs here in Melbourne first thing on Monday. Brooke Bailey and Roxanna Vigil have been working closely with our contacts at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, New Zealand Air, and Nippon to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. Holden has supplied our team with a fleet of vehicles for this year's race and we've already picked up a handful of their 4WD cars. Though driving on the "other side" of the road is a little strange at first, we've gotten used to it surprisingly quickly.

After a brief stay in Melbourne and a quick stop in Adelaide, Garrick Williams, Jeff Ferman, Nate Lehman, and Michael Kezelian have hit the road for some pre-race scouting in South Australia. They've already met up with Bob Allen, our long-time Australian weather and communications expert, in Adelaide where we'll be assembling our equipment for pre-race testing.

The engineers in Ann Arbor are taking some much needed rest after finishing packing Continuum for shipment earlier this week. They are the last (and largest) group of race crew members leaving for Australia, so our operations division will be working hard to make sure that everything is prepped and ready when everyone arrives in Adelaide later this month.

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

1 Comments:

Furqan Nazeeri said...: Go blue!; September 7, 2007 at 9:08 PM

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Michigan Solar Car: Leaving For Australia

The beginning of the fall semester marks a critical time for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 race seasons. The 2007 World Solar Challenge is only 47 days away and we're finally able to see our years of work translate into performance on the road. At the same time, our Team is seeing new beginnings as we prepare for the 2008 North American Solar Challenge and 2009 World Solar Challenge.

To ensure sufficient testing before the 2007 World Solar Challenge in October, our 23-student race crew is currently boarding planes for nearly 2-months of testing and prep in Australia with the UM Solar Car Team. The operations and strategy personnel will arrive in Melbourne this week to begin initial preparations while the engineering division finishes packing Continuum for shipment. Our Team has reached this important milestone after a hectic 6 weeks of work following the unveiling in mid July. Continuum has completed initial dynamic, endurance, and road testing in southeast Michigan after months of construction. The vehicle's solar array has just recently been completed and will continue testing after arrival in Australia later this month.

As we continue to prepare for the World Solar Challenge, our Team has a stable future in North America following the confirmation of the 2008 North American Solar Challenge (NASC). Teams from the US and Canada will compete in the 9th running of this cross continental event now sponsored by Toyota. This fall, students in Ann Arbor will be preparing for the running of Continuum in the 2008 NASC while others begin the design process for the 2009 World Solar Challenge.

Labels: WSC 2007 Season

3 Comments:

Unknown said...: Good luck team!; September 5, 2007 at 2:48 PM
dearmania said...: Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!; September 6, 2007 at 8:29 PM
gjs said...: Go Getum Continuum!; September 7, 2007 at 3:56 PM

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Friday, September 28, 2007

Mock Race Update 4

7 Comments:

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Mock Race Update

1 Comments:

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Progress in Adelaide

4 Comments:

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Route Survey, Part IV

4 Comments:

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Weather Update

2 Comments:

Food in Australia

2 Comments:

Route Survey, Part III

1 Comments:

Friday, September 14, 2007

Route Survey, Part II

1 Comments:

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Route Survey, Part I

3 Comments:

Arriving at Prince Alfred College!

3 Comments:

Monday, September 10, 2007

Greetings from Melbourne!

4 Comments:

Friday, September 07, 2007

Team Members Arriving in Australia

1 Comments:

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Michigan Solar Car: Leaving For Australia

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