Recently in ASC 2010 Category

Campus photographer B.A. Rupert captured in images some of the activity surrounding Missouri S&T's Solar Miner VII this afternoon at the Rolla checkpoint. Here are a few photos.

Solar Miner VII ended Day 1 of the American Solar Challenge south of Butler, Mo., amid a pack of several other teams, including Stanford, Northwestern, Iowa State and Bochen. According to unofficial reports, the University of Michigan and Kaohsiung (the team from Taiwan) have pulled away from the pack.

The teams left the starting line in Broken Arrow, Okla., this morning. Missouri S&T started in the No. 7 spot, and according to the Michigan team's race-tracking site, was the seventh team to arrive at the first checkpoint along the route, at Neosho, Mo. According to the Michigan website, the estimated, best-guess, unofficial times of arrival to the Neosho checkpoint are as follows for the top 10 racers:

1. Michigan -- 2:37:??        
2. Bochum -- 2:49:??       
3. Minnesota -- 2:55:??        
4. Kaohsiung -- 2:56:??        
5. Calgary -- 3:??:??
6. SUNY New Paltz -- 3:25:??
7. Missouri S&T -- 3:38:??
8. Stanford -- 3:51:??
9. Kentucky -- 4:37:??
10. Northwestern -- 4:37:??

Keep in mind that those numbers are all unofficial and are not adjusted for penalties, etc. Plus, this is just the first day of a grueling race, and anything can happen. Check the ASC site for more official information.

Next stop, Topeka, Kan.

P.S. - Check the S&T Student Design Center's Experience This blog for additional updates and photos.

The team reached Cresson, TX Friday night and quickly made friends with the neighboring teams in the pit area.  Scrutineering started bright and early, with the team moving through most of the stations within the first day.  Small hiccups kept the team from breezing through inspections, but in the second day of inspection we have solutions for all of our inspection issues either made or on order.   Within 24 hours of being here we have already caused a rule change because of our unique rollbar padding setup.  The team quickly modified the setup to meet the rule change, but we still take pride in pushing the limits of creativity.


You can check out the team's qualification status on the ASC website here.  We were cleared to begin dynamic qualifications this morning and completed the figure-eight portion within a few passes.  All of our drivers have completed the slalom portion, but our car is unable to complete the brake test.  We've made it so light the car simply does not want to quit; it just wants to keep driving.

Our egress method left numerous teams speechless.  When our drivers began to prove their egress prowess(all under 6 seconds) several teams crowded around to applaud the team.  We're all very pleased with our vastly different egress method, and other teams have definitely begun to rethink their designs.