Here it is, the day we’ve all been waiting for!  This trip has been exhausting, both with everything we’ve done and the sun.  It’s also been frustrating at times since we don’t speak Papiamento and are not always sure what’s on our schedule next.  But, today is our last day of formal activities in Aruba.  I can’t believe the trip is already coming to an end

We woke up early and headed over to our home base at the AVP (or Ah-Vay-Pay, if you prefer) office.  We got Momentum in race condition, loaded our supplies in lead and chase, waited for a police escort to show up and then started the ~15 mile drive from Oranjestad to San Nicolas.

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The drive down went just fine.  Momentum handled very well according to Joe.  Though it was very sunny and hot, Joe survived the uncomfortable trip.  We were treated to some amazing local food when we showed up in the middle of San Nicolas.  People came out of the woodwork to see our car and ask questions.  By the time we finished eating, it was about time to get moving again.  So we turned around and headed back to Oranjestad, this time with a full parade caravan behind us.

Joe did a great job avoiding some of the nasty potholes, I guess he still remembers how to drive Momentum even after all this time!  The road between the cities doesn’t have much along it.  So once we got out of San Nicolas, Joe wanted to open her up a bit.  Unfortunately, when we sped up, it was too fast for some of the other vehicles in the parade group, especially Momentum’s cousin, an electric utility vehicle!

We slowed down again while entering Oranjestad and the horn honking and gaping stares of on-lookers started all over again.  Finally we pulled into the AVP office, in the middle of their flag day celebration, got Joe out of the car and quickly started doing our jobs to protect Momentum.  Though we may have had a few rogue cell touches, there were no serious problems and Momentum is ready to go wherever else will take her.

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After some dancing, fantastic local food and a lot of fun and laughing with our new friends, the day came to an end.

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As always, a shout out to our girl, Sly, for keeping us fed, happy and sane!

Tomorrow we will get Momentum all packed up in the shipping crate and get the crate back to the port.  We’ll then spend some time as tourists getting to know Aruba before we have to say goodbye to this dushi tera (beautiful, sweet land).

Thanks for following this trip!  I know we haven’t always been prompt at posting on the blog due to spotty internet connections and tired travellers, but we appreciate that you’ve been checking back none-the-less.

Feliz dia di bandera, Aruba!

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!

 

-Dave Masselink

Remember how I said that we only went to one school yesterday?  I think that’s because the others got pushed to today.

In the end, we stopped by five different schools all over the island today.  The first school was young students (about 10 years old).  Since tomorrow is Flag day, they were having a flag day celebration when we first showed up.  We were able to hear them sing the national anthem for us and then we had the chance to show off our baby, Mo.  Though these younger students didn’t have many technical questions, they did have A LOT of questions.  Most of the questions were “what’s that do, what’s that do?” questions made while pointing at various parts of the car.

The rest of the schools were for older students.  Each stop went very smoothly.  Depending on what the teachers and students wanted, we could show a presentation of about 30 minutes, just spend time out by the car talking about it and answering questions, or some combination of both.  We had some amazing questions at some of the schools.  One girl asked us whether we can really call a solar car “green technology” when it takes so much energy and so many rare elements to make solar cells.  Though this is something we’re all aware of, we normally don’t get these sorts of questions from the most experienced engineers or energy experts who look at our car.  To get such a difficult question from a 16 year old girl reminded us why we were here in the first place and how important it is for us to raise awareness and get people thinking about our car and about the technology… not just in Michigan, but all over the world.

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Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to think it’s possible that 5 school visits with a vehicle might just be a record number for one day on our team.  Today was exhausting with the sun baking down on us all day long.  We grabbed some food on our way home, ate and we all passed out by about 9:30pm!

-Dave Masselink

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Well, it was time for us to get ourselves back out in public today.  Even though we were originally scheduled to visit three schools today, we ended up only stopping at one.  I guess the others cancelled or pushed our visit to the next day.  We strapped Momentum onto a trailer and very sloooowly drove her to our first school visit.  The students we met with her were older high schoolers.  Supposedly some of them were even into their 20′s.  In Aruba, all students can to college for free in the Netherlands.  This is because Aruba is part of the Dutch kingdom.  So one of our main goals was to convince the students to come to Michigan rather than Delft or Twente.  I’m not sure if we won anyone over, but we definitely made some friends and opened many students’ minds to the possibility of a solar powered car.  As soon as we made this visit, in fact, comments and e-mails from Aruban students start pouring into umsolar.com.

 

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There may have been a few more TV/Radio/Newspaper interviews today, I think I remember at least one on the local NBC affiliate, ATV (Aruban Television).  It’s a bit weird to be pseudo-celebrities here.  We know that what we’ve accomplished, while very special, could have been done by anyone willing to put in the time, blood, sweat and tears to make it happen.  Thats the point we tried to drive home over and over again to the students of Aruba.  It’s an expensive car, but that’s not because we’re rich.  It’s a complicated car, but we didn’t know anything about solar cars when we joined the team, we just tried as hard as we could to learn all that we could.  Anyways, we’re working to collect all newspapers with stories on us, as well as all TV and radio segments.  Hopefully we’ll make this available as soon as we can.  I guess we’re all using up our 15 minutes of fame here in Aruba!

The rest of the day we thought it would be best to carry out a small “route survey.”  The plan is to drive from Oranjestad to San Nicolas and back again around noon on Wednesday.  We’ll be driving with a lead and chase in our normal caravan formation (with lead and chase blocking traffic, calling out potholes, upsetting all other drivers on the road, etc.)  So we drove the race/parade route and made note of any troublesome areas.  When down on the south side of the island, we also decided to have some fun on the beach with a digital camera with a long exposure time and our cell phones

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We made it back to our “home turf” with just enough time to celebrate St. Patrick’s day at midnight… in 80 degree weather with nice ocean breezes.  Not the way we normally celebrate St. Patty’s, but I’d highly recommend it.

-Dave Masselink

Today was actually our first day in Aruba that we didn’t go near the solar car at all.  Burnt out and drained from the previous 3 days, we made today into a team-building work session of sorts.  Empowered by the Aruban sun, we made the most of the day by taking advantage of the more touristy things that this great Island has to offer.

We started with a tour of the Island on all terrain vehicles (ATVs).  Bouncing across the rural terrain of Arikok National Park we got to see and experience parts of Aruba that you just can’t get to otherwise.  This included the ever popular land bridge and other rock formations along with a breathtaking view from the top of Arikok Hill from which you can see the entire country.  Standing there on top of Aruba, it really puts things in to perspective when you realize that the entire population of the land below you could easily fit into our Big House!

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Of course as exciting as all of that was, even more satisfying was that we had the opportunity to meet new friends.  Ryan, our tour guide was excited when he found out who we represented and what we were up to in Aruba.  As it turned out, he had the chance to see Momentum shatter records the previous night at the Palo Marga drag strip where he himself was competing.  Later on in the day we happened to run into him while looking for some dinner.  We ended up sitting and talking for a long while.  He even showed us a video that his girlfriend had taken with her cell phone of Joe getting strapped in.  It really goes to show you the impression that we as a team have the ability to make on people in sharing our own excitement.

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The balance of the day was spent relaxing on the beach resting up for the big week we have ahead of us.  We are all pretty excited about sharing some of our experiences with high school students over the next couple days.  I don’t think that there are many that will argue against me when I say that having the opportunity to share our Solar Car experiences is often times one of the most rewarding parts of being a part of the team in the first place.  After all, it is the experiences that make it all worth it, and its sharing those experiences that give it meaning. 

 

-Dave Mazur

The design-build process our aerodymanics team engages in to produce the car is fairly straight forward.  Once World Solar Challenge regulations were released, our entire engineering division quickly poured over every single regulation.  A variety of different aerodynamic configurations were modeled in Unigraphics NX 5.0 and later analyzed in Fluent to determine coefficients of drag.  At the same time, the Mechanical Division determined the respective weights of all the components in the vehicle to understand their impact on the vehicle’s center of gravity as well as the track and wheel base of the car dictated by the aerodynamic shape to determine the ultimate stability of Infinium.  Once the vehicle was determiend to be stable, the Strategy Division took the various coefficents obtained from Fluent, ran vehicle simulations, and the team settled on a body design for Infinium.  

On the path to producing the best car possible, our team is very priveleged to work with some of the best companies in the world.  The model we create in Unigraphics is a meer shell of the car and nowhere close to being manufacturable.  This is the point where Eicher Engineering Solutions steps in.  Eicher Engineering Solutions takes the vehicles body, sections it into each individual component (fairings, upper surface, lower surface, etc.), adds thickness, and refines the aerodynamics.  They are able to do a large amount of the technical work that our team is unable to do.

Once the body has been sectioned accordingly by Eicher Engineering Solutions, our files were then sent to Ford Motor Company and Roush.  For the production of our canopy plugs, low density tooling board was donated by California based Coastal Enterprises to be later machined by Roush.

Rear Canopy at Roush

Our team is also very proud and thankful to have the generous support of Ford in the production of the remainder of the vehicles plugs.  We would especially like to thank John Consiglio, Rick Martin, and all the members of the Design and Milling shop at The Ford Motor Company.  Ford machined the vehicles upper and lower surface plugs as well as all 6 fairings.  The high density tooling board used was kindly donate by McCausey Lumber.  Below are some images of team members at the shop prior to the machining of Infinium’s lower surface.  All of us were in awe at the size and capability of the mill used to make our car.  The machine is run on a magnetic levitation system similar to a bullet train.  Because of this propulsion system,  the only sound that can be heard while running is the sound of the tool bit cutting material. We were told that the mill is large enough to machine an entire F-350 without any refixturing and that the max speed is around 12 mph.  

Team Members in the Milling Room.  Back Row: Chris Hilger, Rachel Unger, Gerald Chang  Front Row: Alex Dowling, John Federspiel, Steve Durbin

Team Members with Members of the Design and Milling Shop with Infinium’s Lower Surface

 

-John Federspiel, Infinium Engineering Director and Crew Chief

Solar Car Fans and Supporters,

Thank you for visiting the team’s new site! We hope that you will enjoy getting to know us through the pictures, news, and team newsletters.

This month has already been very exciting! In addition to the launch of our new website, we are featured in the April 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics, we have released a new (and much awaited) Solar Express, “SolEx”  and we have finalized the date and location of the Infinium unveiling. 

SAVE THE DATE!

The official invitation will be released soon, but we encourage you to save the date for the unveiling of the tenth generation Michigan Solar Car, Infinium at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI on June 5th at 3pm.

Come celebrate 20 years of excellence with the current team, past team members, sponsors, and fans. We will be unveiling Infinium in the beautiful Anderson Theater at the Henry Ford and then will retire to the museum floor for a close-up look at the car and a chance to meet the team and all of the people who make the project possible. We hope you are able to come!

Day two was again filled with radio shows, interviews, and a large press conference held outside of the AVP offices. The press conference was videotaped and photographed by what seemed to be every media outlet in Aruba. The prime time news on ATV (Aruba TV) even featured Jeff and I speaking about our car in a five minute long segment that they had advertised for all throughout the day.

 

Aruba surely has been excited about our presence. So far, we have been featured live on three radio shows, and have graced the front page of three daily newspapers. The Diario (translated as the Daily Diary),even published a political cartoon featuring our solar car.

 

 

Following the press conference, the team was finally able to enjoy the island.We were treated to a lovely meal on a pier outstretched over the gentile rolling waves on the western coast of Aruba. Our new best friend, Sylvia, has put up with the four of us for the past few days, serving as our personal tour guide and taxi driver.We even had to dig her car out the sand on the beach, but don’t tell her. Among the 300 plus motorcycles cruising the strip, we treated ourselves to some much needed relaxation time with the other college students who aren’t just pretending they are on spring break.

 

The sun in Aruba is intense to say the least. We were able to charge all of MomentUM’s batteries in record time during the morning of day three. The team spend most of the day displaying the car in Paseo Herencia. Hundreds of tourists and locals alike were amazed with the car and that we were all the way in Aruba promoting clean energy and the University of Michigan.

 

 

About 5 hours ago, we completed something that has never been done by a Michigan Solar Car:Race in a 1/4 mile drag race. Street racing is extremely popular in Aruba and tonight was “Street Legal” night at the track. We did get a strange look from the track officials when we pulled up with the solar car, but after a quick chat, they shut down all the racing to see Momentum Ripping down the track. OK, ripping may have been a poor word choice. I am proud to announce four records currently held by Momentum at Palomarta Dragstrip.

1. Fastest time ever by a solar powered car.

2. First ever solar car on the track.

3. Most Fuel Efficient (no oil spilled, and no rubber left behind) car ever on the track.

and finally, the record we will be most remembered for…

4. Slowest Vehicle ever to complete a pass.
Our official numbers were 30.42 sec at 56.94 MPH and as far as we know, that is a world record.

 

 

Tomorrow the team plans on relaxing on the beach and cruising the island on some quad racers. Don’t worry we won’t forget the sunscreen.

 

-Joe Belter, MomentUM (2005) Project

This afternoon Dylan Keefe-Reitzell (Race Crew Aerodynamicist), Santosh Kumar (Race Crew Strategist) and I met with Brock Palen from the Center for Advanced Computing in the College of Engineering. Brock showed us how we can utlitize some of the CAC’s 3000+ computing cores to decrease computational time and increase complexity of our aerodynamic analysis and strategy optimizations. We were also happy to learn that Brock is a team alumni from the SpectrUM (2003) and MomentUM (2005) projects. We eagerly listened as he shared his past experiences on the team with us.

-Alex Dowling, Infinium Strategy Director and Head Strategist

This morning Steve Hechtman and I joined Scott Low at Lawton Elementary School in Ann Arbor for a short presentation to Ms. Starr’s fifth grade class. We spoke about the Michigan Solar Car Team, alternative energy technology, and the importance of a strong education.

 

The class listened carefully and Steve and I were very impressed with maturity of the questions the students asked.

 

Thank you for letting us join your class for the morning!

 

-Julia Hawley, Infinium Business Director

More than three years after MomentUM (our 2005 car) traveled to Australia to compete in the 2005 World Solar Challenge, MomentUM is once again back on the road! Invited by Mike Eman and the AVP, four team members have traveled with the car to Aruba to promote green energy. We are proud to be the first solar car in Aruba, and will be travling across the country this upcoming wed in celebration of the Aruban National Holiday and Flag day.

 

The four of us arrive in Aruba

 

After arriving late last night and spening a few hours touring the office and meeting Mike, we retired in preperation for a busy day today.

 

Joe Belter, Jeff Ferman, David Mazur, and David Masselink at the AVP office.

 

This morning we traveled from interview to interview before heading out for a late lunch. We were featured live on two radio stations! We then spent the afternoon ensuring the car survived the journey (which it did) and preparing the car for upcoming events. After test driving the car, we are ready for tomorrow’s press release.

 

The first radio station we visited.

 

And now I’m going to head back inside and leave my nice lounge chair by the pool.

A view from my lounge chair of the pool at the apartment we are staying in.

 

-Jeffery Ferman, MomentUM (2005) and Continuum (2007/2008) Projects