More Materials/Registration

It is the start of Week 6, and the initial vehicle design is still in progress.  So far, the base has been established as shown in the previous post.  The motor will sit toward the front of the vehicle and will drive the front two wheels while the back two almost as a single third wheel.  Since our car will consist of an open-frame design (meaning essentially no frontal area), we are assuming that the potential lift caused by the wind between the upper solar panel and the lower chassis will compensate for the drag caused by the weight of the heaviest component, the motor.

Furthermore, we decided to order a second solar kit, as seen in Figure 1, mostly for the extra gears with which it will come.  This will give us more options in choosing a proper gear ratio.  Plus, the new gears will be sturdier and hopefully more effective than our current ones.  With shipping and handling, the price of the new solar kit was $16.95.

Finally, by the end of the day, our team and our car will have officially been registered for the Junior Solar Spring Competition under the name "Lucky 13."

Figure 1: A Pitsco SunZoon Lite solar kit.  Although it comes with another solar panel and motor, it is most likely that only the gears and maybe the wheels or axles will be utilized.  [1]
References
[1]Pitsco Education. (2012). SunZoon Lite. [Online] Available FTP: http://shop.pitsco.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=2647&bhcp=1