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The date for Formula Sun 2009 has been set for June 1 - 5.  The event is not guaranteed yet, as only five teams have sent letters of commitment, out of the necessary ten.  The event is still planned for the Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX.  This is the same track that qualifying for the 2008 NASC was held on.

At a webinar Thursday evening for solar car teams, it was announced that if 10 teams commit the $4,000 entry fee by January 1, 2009 there will be a track race this summer.  While the exact dates were not given, they are looking at having it at the Cresson Motorsports Ranch in Texas, the same location as we had scruitineering and qualifying for the 2008 NASC.  While we have not committed at this time, we are planning for it.  It will be the second running of Solar Miner VI, but with some improvements since the last time.  As always, your support is what makes it possible for us to go out and compete in these events.

Video of the team on the way to Calgary.

The Missouri S&T Solar Car Team began the day Friday in sixth place, according to the official standings from the North American Solar Challenge organization.

The team is taking off from Sioux Falls, S.D., this morning and heading north toward Fargo, N.D. Bob has more details (and cool photos, like the one below) over at Experience This! and Lance is certain to post some Talking Heads-inspired observations about this long, strange road trip right here on Solar42, so stay tuned.

Good to see all of the green in Neosho.

The team is rested (more rested than before, anyway) and ready to head back out on the road to Calgary via Omaha tomorrow. They'll start out in either fourth or fifth place, which, in retrospect doesn't seem so bad. Everybody will be chasing Michigan and Principia -- but there are a lot of cars that will have to catch up to S&T if they hope to run with the lead pack.

By tomorrow evening, this site should be populated with some fresh MULTI-media updates, including new audio and video. In the interim, Bob has posted some new photos and a Foxworthy-like list of reasons you know you're on a solar car adventure over at Experience This!

Solar Miner VI got to Crowder College this morning about 9:30 a.m. and the team will rest here (this is an official stage stop) until Tuesday morning.

So the teams to arrive in Neosho (in order) are: Michigan, Principia, Minnesota, Germany and Missouri S&T. The rest of the pack is presumably still in Oklahoma.

Functionality and performance are always going to be the primary concerns of engineers, but looks matter. And in the aesthetic arena, Michigan and the team from Germany are in a class by themselves (no doubt aided by really big budgets). The Michigan car is sleek with a wolverine football helmet design painted into the canopy, while the German car looks like a huge fishing lure or a yellow humpback whale. And when it's charging, the German vehicle opens up like a big clam. These cars are very impressive and wonderfully designed, but we'll see if they have been built to withstand the stress of the long haul.

Meanwhile, the S&T team is relying on the kind of old school engineering that once got American astronauts to the moon and back. It reminds us of Tom Hanks in Apollo 13. Sure, the Solar Miners have GPS and all kinds of sophisticated equipment, but we're pretty sure they're also relying on plenty of duct tape, wire hangers, shoelaces and possibly transistor radio parts.

Missouri S&T has been designing, building and racing solar cars since 1993. So far, Missouri S&T students have entered eight different vehicles in various competitions around the world, each one emblazoned with the sacred number 42. The team won its first championship in solar car racing in 1999. Missouri S&T followed that up by winning a national championship in 2003. The 2003 American Solar Challenge followed Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. The cars, which run entirely on power from the sun, use about as much energy as it takes to run a hair dryer. The 2008 race route starts near Dallas and ends up in Calgary, Alberta. Learn more about the team's history by visiting their new website: solarcar.mst.edu.