[09:30 CET] It’s now 18:00 in Darwin and that means that all participating teams should have stopped for the night – I think official stopping time is 17:00 local time. Because the teams simply pull the handbrake when the clock stops they could end up anywhere, and because Australia is kind of empty, ‘anywhere’ usually means in the middle of the desert. A nice place to camp I’m sure, with the heat, insects, dangerous creatures and of course an high-tech solar racing car to tend to.
The organisation has put a Google Maps-map online on which the teams’ positions are marked. Besides the map on their website you can also download a Google Earth-file, which is more userfriendly because the map renews periodically, automatically showing the moest recent situation. You need Google Earth on your computer for this, which you can download for free here.
The map also shows all mandatory check points, with its distance from the starting point so you can estimate how far the teams have come. Each team marker also shows the time when that particular position was measured.
The situation I see on the map now (it can – and almost certainly will – still change):
The markers of the teams which have travelled furthest are at the Dunmarra checkpoint, which is at 633km away from the starting point. The markers are: Nuon Solar Team (17:02), OSU (16:42), Michigan (16:15) en Tokai (15:58). This system is new to me, so I need to get some feeling how it works. If I assume that the teams that arrived at the checkpoint earliest also travelled furthest after that (until 17:00), the stopping list could look like this:
1 Tokai
2 Michigan
3 OSU
4 Nuon Solar Team
5 Umicore / Twente
Again: I compiled this list from provisional information information of which I have no idea yet how it is gathered, so be very careful with basing conclusions on it. It’s not really handy that the measuring times differ from each other. I keep a sharp eye on both the organisations’ website and the teams’ websites, and as soon as I can find ‘offical’ news about the stopping order I’ll immediately post it here.
[09:45 CET] The blog of the organisation mentions an unconfirmed report that the Belgian Umicore team crashed and would be “out of action”. If it’s true, that would we terrible. I’m waiting for confirmed reports.
[11:45 CET] More information is starting to appear about the crash of the Umicore team. There’s still nothing on their website, but the Belgian newspaper De Tijd writes: “The Belgian solar race car which participates in the World Solar Challenge, the biennual unofficial world championship for solar racing cars in Australia, is out of the race. A whirlwind crashed the racing car, reported main sponsor Umicore.” That’s really bad, they were my favorite for this race but this must be especially hard on the team members as they have worked very hard for two years on this car. I can’t imagine how it must feel to see it end on the first day of the race…
The website of the organisation now displays the Daily Results, and this is the top five:
1 Tokai
2 Infinium
3 Nuon
4 Twente
5 Umicore (but they are out of the race)
I don’t quite understand how this works. The first four teams would all have driven the same distance (633km) and the finish time is different for each team. Does that mean that the teams have to stop at a check point at the end of the day? Or do they drive on and stop at 17:00, wherever hey are?
The Nuon Solar Teams’ website (which is getting a bit slow) has no information on how that team is doing. I’m curious about the unconfirmed reports of problems with their solar panel.
Michigan passes Nuon
[12:15 CET] Nuon Solar Team has updated their website. They are in third position, and they actually have problems with the equipment which optimises the amount of energy they get from their solar panel (which are probably MPPT’s, maximum-power-point trackers). They write that they hope to make up for the lost time tomorrow.
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De Belgische zonnewagen die deelneemt aan de World Solar Challenge, het tweejaarlijkse officieuze wereldkampioenschap voor zonnewagens in Australië, ligt uit de race. Door een windhoos crashte de zonnewagen, zo meldt hoofdsponsor Umicore.
[12:30 CET] Here is a movie of the start of the WSC, Nuna 5 and 21Revolution pass by:
[Update] Embedding the movie does not seem to work well, you can watch it here.
[12:45 CET] And another movie which shows several solar race cars passing by:
[13:00 CET] Swisspirit has withdrawn from the race. Apparently their car sustained damage during transit to Australia which they were unable to fix in a satisfactory way to safely enter the race.
21Revolution on the road on racing day 1
[13:30 CET] Solar Team Twente also updated their website with news about their first racing day. It seemed to have been a good day for them, they moved up from their eleventh starting position to the fourth position. They have had only a few problems (the drivers are demanding cushions for their backsides as those are getting black and blue from the hard seat 
) and the only problems that crept up were a lost wheel pant (which was picked up, undamaged, by one of the fleet cars) and a cracked fresnell-lens (which they expect to easily replace). That all sounds very positive to me, and if the Nuon Solar Team has fixed their solar panel problems tomorrow it would seem that there are two very strong Dutch teams in the top five!
[14:15 CET] A telephone interview with the spokeswoman of the Solar Team Twente has been put online.
[14:30 CET] Both German teams didn’t have an easy start of their race. The Solarworld No.1 had its first flat tyre even before having left Darwin, and when the team tried to replace it they discovered that the rim was severely damaged. Because the front wheel contains the motor it had to be taken out of the vehicle, have its rim replaced and built back into the vehicle, all of which took valuable time. The BOcruiser had flat tyres on all four wheels and that also set them back considerably. Both teams made the first check point but their average speeds were low. I also read on the website of ther German teams that Aurora 101 suffered considerable damage to its suspension system, also caused by flat tyre(s). Aurora’s website has no up-to-date news.
[15:15 CET] The last few seconds of this movie should show the crashed remains of the Umicore Inspire.
[17:00 CET] It’s about twelve thirty at night in Australia now and the news flow seems to have dried up a bit. What a racing day it was: one of the favourites, Umicore, on its way home with a crashed car, Nuon performing well but they have some catching up to do, Twente has done extremely well, climing seven places in one day and the Germans who are tormented by incessant tyre problems. I nearly can’t wait until tomorrow.
The weather forecast for tomorrow for Alice Springs, which is nearly in the middle of the Australian continent, shows lots of sun. This should mean high speeds for all teams. Sunny weather is especially advantageous for the cars with concentrators, like at least the Twente Solar Team.
I’m keeping an eye on the race again tomorrow. Any tips about news, preferably with a link to its source, is welcome by e-mail or through the comments on this website.
[18:30 CET] Here’s a short movie, showing Nuna 5 and also the crashed Umicore Inspire:
[20:30 CET] Nuon Solar Team has put a movie online of their first racing day. It turned out that one or more of their MPPT units broke down, I hope they can fix that for tomorrow. The movie also shows the crashed Inspire in some detail, and some understandably emotional Belgian students. Very, very sad…
[23:00 CET] A final movie for today from Dutch news website nu.nl about the first racing day of Solar Team Twente. Also in this movie a few very sad Belgian students:
gaat even iets mis met die blockquote ..
Informatie voorziening vanuit de organisatie is ook gewoon een kwestie van geld. Als je hun site erop na kijk zie je ook dat er geen grote sponsor achter het evenement zit. Er zijn 1 of 2 betaalde krachten in de organisatie en de rest wordt door vrijwilligers gedaan. Dit jaar is de organisatie overgenomen door de South Australian Motor Sport Board onderdeel van de Fia. Misschien dat er daardoor wat verbetering valt te verwachten maar vrees dat we komende jaren afhankelijk blijven van mensen zoals Jeroen. Zover ik weet hebben de meeste top teams een satelliet telefoon. Die zijn gewoon te huur en als de gsm dekking de afgelopen jaren niet erg verbeterd is zullen de foto’s en artikelen van Delft en Twente daar ook nog steeds mee gepubliceerd worden.
Informatievoorziening vanuit de organisatie vind ik onder de maat, maar dat vond ik vier en twee jaar geleden ook al. Ze hebben de mogelijkheid reclame te maken voor duurzamer vervoer, voor een prachtig evenement en zelfs voor een heel land en die mogelijkheid wordt niet aangegrepen. Zonde
Informatievoorziening vanuit de teams kan ik weinig over zeggen. Ik kan me voorstellen dat de eerste prioriteit is: veilig aankomen in Adelaide, tweede prioriteit als eerste aankomen en pas veel later in het lijstje komt de informatievoorziening naar de buitenwereld. Sponsoring is een probleem, vooral nu in 2009, zelfs Nuon heeft niet zoveel geld als ze zouden willen heb ik begrepen. Als je (bijvoorbeeld) €2000 hebt en je kunt er een reservemotor voor kopen of een maand lang een satelliettelefoon voor huren dan zou ik het wel weten: de extra motor vergroot je kansen de challenge uit te rijden, de satelliettelefoon niet.
Ik dacht ook zeker te weten dat Michigan en Twente een sattelite telefoon hebben. Verder doen de telefoons het nu al niet meer als ik het goed heb..600 km van Darwin. En bij Michigan zaten ze te klagen dat de McDonald(?) die internet zou moeten hebben..dat wel had..maar geen WERKEND internet, het internet lag er uit.
Tja, als je snel hulp nodig hebt is een satteliet telefoon ook niet weg..maar de telefoonkosten zijn wat hoog. En gezien de pech deze dagen een stel extra STEVIGE banden en een stootbumper ook niet
Maar de info..voor informatie moet je niet bij de organisatie zijn..ik verwacht eigenlijk dat de Twitteraars het eerst zijn.
http://twitter.com/wsolarchallenge
Maar wie weet wat de budgetten zijn ? Twente (1,3 miljoen), Michigan (vroeger 2 miljoen dollar, rijden wel twee wedstrijden), MIT en Cambridge (300.000 $/pond) en Nuon 2 miljoen Euro. Kloppen die bedragen een beetje ? De goedkoopste auto twee jaar geleden kwam uit Wales/UK en kostte 8.000 pond volgens mij.
Gisteravond tijdens Nacht van de Nacht een alleraardigste film van de Hubble gekregen. Hubble, 15 years of discovery. ..heel leuk..wel wat lang moet ik zeggen.
Maar van de japanners horen we echt weinig toch ? Waren zij nou degene die voor Twente eindigden vorige keer, WSC 2007.
En heeft Michigan nu wel of geen concentrators ?
http://www.phaethon2004.org/en/participants/part05.html
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=nl&sl=ja&tl=nl&u=http://solarcar.osaka-sandai.ac.jp/
Tekst en filmpje over vandaag door de NOS, vooral over de Nuna.
Midden in het filmpje ook weer beelden van de gecrashte Belgen…
Zie: http://www.nos.nl/nosjournaal/artikelen/2009/10/25/251009_nuna_solar.html
Principia solar car reed de eerste deel van de etappe terwijl ze de solar array niet aan hun batterij gekoppeld hadden.
Lekker slim
http://groups.google.com/group/principiasolarcar/browse_thread/thread/74461e13c5cda263?pli=1
Op http://www.nuvideo.nl/wetenschap/32011/goede-start-voor-solar-team-twente.html staat een mooi verslag van de eerste dag van het Solar Team Twente.
Ik wilde de video net posten Jeroen. Je was me net voor! 90 km/h gemiddeld, dat is heel netjes!
Ja, ik las het ook net van Principia…
“With a full battery pack, Ra 7 zipped down the road at a good clip. Until, that is, we started to notice some oddly low voltages in the battery pack. The array was turned on and the sunlight was strong, but the pack wasn’t charging like it should. The truck toting our crate zoomed ahead of the caravan to scout out a safe place to pull over, and we stopped for a quick electrical check. There, he found a startling (and slightly humorous) mistake: our array was not actually connected to our battery pack” Whoops! O:)
BELGEN
Ik heb net het nieuws gezien op de VRT, Vooral over de Umicore. Je ziet de hevig geschrokken coereur, die natuurlijk alle wielen en vleugels van zicht af ziet breken, nog hevig geschrokken in de auto en later op de grond zitten.
Je kan de reportage vinden op:
http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.622752.
CONCENTRATORS
Volgens Michigan zijn concentrators vooral handig tijdens het opladen savonds en sochtends en het laatste gedeelte van de reis, maar dan mag je toch niet meer zo hard rijden. Aurora..ligt die nu ook al uit de competitie ?
Het gaat wel hard zo..na een dag gelijk twee leden van de oude Top3 uitgeschakeld.
Tokai appears to have a really good solar car. Infinium may have edge with those concentrators, though. They will help with morning and evening charge. Michigan may start the coming race days with more juice in the battery pack. In the Southern Territory, the chance of cloudy skies increases. That may give Michigan a chance to close the gap, too. This may get close. Umicore and Aurora may be out of it, but Michigan and Nuon are not. Twente and MIT seem to be doing really well, too.
http://twitter.com/UMSolarCarTeam Michican SolarTeam University of Michigan students designing, financing, building, and racing a solar-powered vehicle in competitions around the world. Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blu
http://friendfeed.com/wsc-2009
http://twitter.com/solarcar
(deze lijkt minder actueel http://twitter.com/wsolarchallenge)
http://twitter.com/Racer_D (Vreemd genoeg maar 5 followers) Nodig om Nuna hot te volgen(We vervoeren de filmcrew langs de Nuna tijdens de race.) Heeft leuke fotos MET begeleidende tekst!!!! Ik denk dat ie onderschat wordt. Alleen vandaag al twintig tweets ook met fotos
http://twitpic.com/mogqw van Michigan (zonder concentrators?)
http://twitter.com/NUsolar NUsolar is a team of 30 undergraduate students at Northwestern University dedicated to designing solar cars for use in education, outreach, and competitio
http://twitter.com/UKSolarCar We are the University of Kentucky Solar Car Team. UK Solar Car Team