“We don’t want to run these down so far that my car doesn’t start,” says Tom Stueve, only half joking. “One of those batteries is mine.”
It’s Wednesday afternoon and Stueve, a teacher at Trinity Lutheran High and majordomo for the school’s Solar Car Team, is “troubleshooting” during the maiden voyage of Heliocentric, a high-tech, four-wheeled contraption that’s just completed an on-again-off-again circuit of the parking lot. Heliocentric (means sun-centered like the solar system) is powered by four car batteries and an electric motor. Plans call for solar panels to eventually generate the necessary oomph.
Driver and techie Nathan Schouw, a freshman, is stewing over the heat coming off the vehicle’s motor. Sophomore Josh Cheney is explaining the genesis of the ambitious project. And Alex Lyon is lobbying for a shot at a stint in the driver’s seat.
While not a culmination, this is a momentous step for the 12-member team that formed last spring to pursue an idea and molded and prodded it into a tangible reality.
Make no mistake; they have a long way to go. But Stueve and his young charges have always thought big.
The goal: “To be a race team and have it perpetuate itself year to year,” said Stueve.
The next step is an “electrathon” race, part of DaVinci Days next month in Corvallis. The race challenge is to see how many laps they can drive in an hour. After that is where thinking big looms large. Next year, Stueve and his crew plan to participate in the Dell-Winston Solar Car Challenge in Texas. Past race routes have led from Austin, Texas, to New York City and other transcontinental points.
“Eventually we want to have this first car and another with a titanium frame,” Stueve said.
He’d like to partner with Cessna — the airplane manufacturer — to build a composite body with solar panels integrated throughout. Such an experimental vehicle would cost an estimated $40,000.
Meanwhile, the team has been scraping together solar cells, the specialized motor, multiple batteries, brakes and an aluminum frame.
“All the welds on this car were done by an eighth-grader,” Stueve noted.
Fundraising efforts have already yielded the team about $18,000, Stueve said. Team members have attended a solar car training workshop in Texas and acquired parts. Raising funds is a constant, according to Stueve. Next year’s long distance race from Texas, with its travel and support crew, will cost plenty of money.
The project was the brainchild of former Trinity teacher James Ralston, an Australian educator who’s now teaching in Dubai. There’s a big recurring solar car race in Adelaide, Australia, that piqued his interest, Stueve recalled. Ralston began researching, discovered the Texas event and began talking it up. The students bought into it.
For Stueve, whose background is in molecular biology, it’s been a learning experience right along with the students. Together they’ve learned a lot about physics, including all about metals, frames, strength and rigidity, he said.
The team’s original plan was to participate in the Texas race this summer, but the learning curve has been steep.
“We could get there and race this year,” he said. “But we wouldn’t pass the ‘scrutineering.’”
Scrutineering is a screening process by race organizers designed to eliminate weaker teams before they start.
Shooting for next summer will give the team time to raise more money and work out the kinks.
“I always wanted to build a car with my dad,” said Josh, who’s become the project’s student spokesman. “This was a great way to do that with classmates. It’s a team effort to get it accomplished.”
In a recent community fundraising letter, Josh wrote: “With your generous financial gift, my classmates and I will gain scientific knowledge, dedication, team strength, courage and the reward of seeing a project successfully reach the finish line. Also, optimistically, perhaps someday your charitable contribution could lead to a less pollutant automobile.”
One that doesn’t run on gas.
Stueve and his students say they’ll continue to think big.
Jim Witty can be reached at 617-7828 or jwitty@bendbulletin.com.