The MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team's car placed third in the North American Solar Challenge, completing the 2,500-mile course along U.S. Route 75 and Trans-Canada Highway 1 from Austin, Texas, to Alberta, Calgary, in just over 56 hours.
The world's longest solar car race, NASC 2005 began on July 17 and ended July 27. The University of Michigan's car, Momentum, took first place, making the arduous 10-day trip in just under 54 hours. The University of Minnesota's Borealis III placed second.
MIT's 375-pound, single-seat vehicle, called Tesseract, was one in a field of 20 sleek, low-slung solar cars that drove through city traffic, open highways and pounding Kansas rain using only the energy of the sun. (When the sun's not out, the cars run on batteries charged with solar energy.)
Tesseract's start was not sunny: MIT was in ninth place on the morning of July 17, but pulled into third place by day's end and held that position for much of the NASC event.
Other U.S. universities that competed included Missouri (fourth and eighth place), Western Michigan (sixth) and Stanford University (ninth). To qualify for NASC, each solar car had to prove it could drive 120 miles at a minimum speed of 25 mph.
The NASC course-known as a "rayce" among solar power enthusiasts-followed a straight line from south to north, with a sharp westward turn at Winnipeg, Manitoba. En route to the University of Calgary's Olympic Oval, the solar cars passed through checkpoints in Weatherford, Texas; Broken Arrow, Okla.; Topeka, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Fargo, N.D.; Brandon, Manitoba; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Before the race, each NASC vehicle underwent a rigorous inspection process, known as scrutineering, in Austin, followed by a qualifying test at Texas World Speedway.
Despite its extraordinary shape, Tesseract is composed of ordinary parts, including 512 lithium-ion batteries, the same type found in most laptop computers. A 6-horsepower motor attached to the hub of the rear wheel provides power; there is no transmission.
The driver controls the car with center-mounted handlebars, much like a bicycle; the car uses four mountain-bike brakes connected to go-kart master cylinders and pedal to stop.
Tesseract's Batmobile-like sheen comes from its solar array-2,732 solar cells, the same cells used on NASA satellites-covering a Kevlar and epoxy resin body. A chromoly steel space frame holds Tesseract together. The suspension is a car-mountain bike hybrid.
The car's name has interdisciplinary significance. In geometry, a tesseract, or hypercube, is a 4-dimensional analog of a cube. In literature, science fiction author Madeleine L'Engle used "tesseract" both as a noun-a type of "wrinkle" in space and time-and as a verb, as in tessering, or travel in the fifth dimension, in her novel, "A Wrinkle in Time."
In September 2005, Tesseract will compete in the World Solar Challenge, traversing Australia from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south, a distance of about 1,860 miles.
The NASC 2005 contest was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Natural Resources Canada, DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, TransAlta, University of Calgary, CSI Wireless, AMD and Manitoba Transportation and Government Services.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth slam Government's decision on sustainable timber
(London, 11th August 2005) A coalition of leading environmental NGOs, today, attacked the UK Government's decision to water down its standards for sustainable timber, by allowing government departments to buy wood from forest certification schemes that approve destructive logging practices.
In a joint statement, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace said the changes were a major set-back in the Government's efforts to only purchase timber from legal and well-managed forests.
The Government has decided to allow timber produced under the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) schemes to qualify for sustainable timber procurement.
Evidence shows the two schemes allow large scale, unsustainable logging in ancient forest areas, the destruction of endangered species habitat and the abuse of indigenous peoples' rights. The Government's acceptance of the PEFC scheme is conditional on the adoption of international criteria by all national schemes, and this will be reviewed in six months. But campaigners say that the scheme should not be accepted because even if they achieve this, their international criteria are still too weak.
Approval of the SFI is only applicable to a percentage based labelling scheme that is not yet in use. Nathan Argent, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner said, " This decision by the Government will rubber-stamp destructive logging practices that threaten the environment and do not take into consideration indigenous peoples' rights.
We urge both the public and private sector to clearly specify FSC on all contracts in order to guarantee that the timber they are using is from legal and sustainable sources ." Ed Matthew, Friends of the Earth's Forest Campaigner said, " The Government has come up with an ingenious method for persuading its critics that it only buys sustainable timber. They are officially recognising destructive logging as sustainable logging. Hey presto, all that horrible destructive timber that they buy has disappeared."
The announcement follows DEFRA's Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) re-assessment of the two schemes. Environmental groups have challenged the Government's conclusions and say the schemes cannot provide consumers with a credible assurance that the timber they buy comes from well-managed forests.
The assessment was strictly paper-based, did not address on the ground practices and does not include social criteria meant to address the rights of forest peoples. Previously only certification by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Canadian Standards Association was considered as proof of legal and sustainable sourcing by the UK government. The only scheme that is generally accepted by all stakeholders, including environment groups, as ensuring environmentally and socially responsible timber sourcing is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
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