No Battery!?! Solar Vehicle Team Leaps into Action

Dateline: Darwin, Australia

Meet Chopper del Sol, a sleek vehicle with red, custom-made solid polyurethane tires, MIT’s entry in the World Solar Challenge 2011. You can follow that race today—Day 5 of the 3000km race across Australia’s outback--on the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team’s blog and photos.

Update: Get team reflections in an 11-29-11 MIT News office article.

So far, it’s been a fight for survival.

First, the battery pack failed to ship to Darwin, the starting point of the race. With only 38 hours before the race began, the team, already sleep deprived, set out to build a new battery pack with bits donated by other teams. Find out how they solved the problem and get a recap from the blog posts:

Day 1, Oct. 16

“…After a shredded tyre (a quick turnaround thanks to our awesome tyre crew) we realized we were suffering a problem with our array….”

Day 2, Oct. 17

“…Our newly constructed battery pack (thanks UMich!!!) has a smaller capacity due to a lack of battery protection system circuitry, so we depleted most of it yesterday….[and] Nature was not on our side today…”

Day 3, Oct. 18

“…Once again, nature put up a tough fight. There were some major fires to the south throwing up large smoke clouds—this led to a huge decrease in array power…”

Day 4, Oct. 19

“….We upped our speed to 60-70 kph, finally allowing Chopper to strut its stuff….One terrifying moment was when we were run off the road by an oversize load trucking the other way…

Day 5, Oct. 20

Get the provisional results.

Learn more about the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team, the evolution of Chopper and its technical details.