November 2007 Archives

We put the ribs in the body over the weekend and are now sanding the epoxy in preparing of putting on a second layer of kelvar in places. After learning from the practice body, these ribs fit very well with the top of the body. The body is upside down in the mold and later this week we plan to put the bottom on the body. The nose will also be added to the body this week so that the shape is nearly complete.

Cody Massar sanding Solar Miner VI's body

To all of our sponsors we would like to say, "Thank You," for supporting our team to compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. Without your help, both products and cash, we would be unable to compete. Even though we are over 7 months away from the competition, we greatly value your support while building the car.

If you are not currently a sponsor, please check out our list of sponsors, or see how you can become a sponsor.

If you look at the webcam it may look like we have taken a step backwards on the body, but the body we had previously been building was our practice body. Due to extra time between races we built a practice body first to make sure everything would fit correctly.

We encountered some difficulties with the shape of the practice body and now we are well on our way with construction of the final body. We have made final adjustments to both the plywood and internal ribs and have gotten them both waterjetted and assembled. We have some final assembly to do on the internal ribs this weekend and then once we get more kevlar in on Monday we will be laying up the inside of the body.

We hope this will work better than our previous solution and make it easier for you to look at previous posts. Of course none of this would matter if we don't post, but we plan to post at least weekly during the build and more frequently during the race and days leading up.

Also, an email address should not be required to post a comment, so let us hear what you think

Please remember to update your bookmarks to http://solarcar.mst.edu/ and email to solar1@mst.edu because the University is changing its name to Missouri University of Science and Technology on Jan 1st, 2008.

Progress continues on building the body. We have layed up Kevlar on the foam and used the 5-axis waterjet machine on campus to cut the internal ribs. What we are most excited about is a large crate that arrived Thursday from Bitrode. Even though we don't have a place to use it yet, this machine will be vital to testing the battery pack. More on that later once it is setup and running. Click more for a picture of the progress

Bitrode Machine still in its packaging