Welcome to Team PrISUm

Hyperion Body Manufacturing - October 31, 2011

Over the past two weekends, Team PrISUm has been hard at work making the body for the next generation solar car. The fiberglass layup process took place at Delta's repair facility in the Minneapolis International Airport. Delta Airlines is a long time sponsor of our team and we are thankful for their continued support as we work to complete our newest car, Hyperion. We also would like to recognize Walmart as our newest team sponsor. Walmart donated the transportation of our molds to and from Minneapolis in one of their semi trucks.

During the first weekend, we produced the top shell, canopy, and front fairings for the car. The extra time we put into creating the molds paid off since we were able to pull nearly perfect vacuum, had no difficulty removing the finished body, and didn't experience any cracking issues with the molds during the cure cycle. The following weekend, the team manufactured the bottom shell, rear fairing, and bulkhead panel board for the car.

The success over the past two weekends is the result of tremendous team work, careful planning, and days of no sleep. See our Flickr page for lots of pictures of the layup process and be sure to check out our time lapse video on YouTube that crams 20 hours of work into a few minutes...

Batteries Arrive as the Team Prepares to Manufacture the Body - October 17, 2011

The Li-Ion battery cells that will be used for the construction of Hyperion's 3,516.5Wh 19.4kg battery pack just arrived today. While these cells aren't the most energy dense on the market, they have a wider temperature tolerance, greater charging capacity, longer lifecycle, and lower cost than other cells on the market. We'll begin assembling the battery modules in the coming weeks. The design of our next generation battery protection system (BPS) that will monitor the battery pack is also coming along nicely and we look forward to testing it with the fully assembled battery pack before the end of the year.

In other news, the mechanical team is preparing to depart on Friday to begin manufacturing the fiberglass shell for the car at Delta Airlines in Minneapolis. We are in the final stages of sanding and polishing the Duratec on the molds. Three weeks from now, if all goes as planned, we should have the composite shell of the car sitting in our garage. At that point, we'll return our focus to finalizing the frame and suspension design and beginning to manufacture those components. As always, check out our Flickr gallery for the latest images.

Project Update - September 24, 2011

Team PrISUm facilities have been bustling with activity since the start of the fall semester. We are thankful to have lots of new members in our electrical, mechanical, and business divisions as we begin to take Hyperion out of the design stage and into the manufacturing stage.

Our SunPower C60 solar cells are on order and will be encapsulated by SunCat Solar later in the semester. These cells should provide the car with over 1200 Watts of power at STC conditions. We also recently purchased the cells for our new 3.5kWh li-ion battery pack. The cells have a 140 degree charging temperature, so our overheating issues from ASC 2010 should be a thing of the past. Team members are currently setting up jigs to assemble our 27 battery modules in the coming months. Other major electrical projects that are currently ongoing include a major revamp of our Battery Protection System (BPS), Telemetry System (wireless data acquisition), and a new driver dashboard display.

The mechanical team is hard at work preparing the molds for the body of the car. We will begin spraying the final Duratec coating on the molds this weekend at George White Chevrolet in Ames. A lot of sanding and polishing remains before we head up to Delta Airlines in Minneapolis the last two weeks of October to lay up the car's fiberglass body. Stress analysis is currently being conducted on the frame and suspension before we can begin manufacturing these systems. We recently received our Ohlins FSAE TTX 25 shocks and components that will be used for the car's steering system.

Our team members have been working around the clock to ensure that Hyperion stays on schedule. We are nearly half a year ahead of where Anthelion was at this time in the project and expect to have a rolling chassis for the new car early in the spring semester. Our last two vehicles have been plagued by problems due to lack of pre-competition testing, but we are determined to ensure that Hyperion is thoroughly tested before we enter the 2012 American Solar Challenge next summer. We feel that an accelerated project timeline is essential for us to behighly competitive in our upcoming race but this puts increased pressure on our fundraising efforts. We want to thank all of the companies and individuals who have already donated to our latest solar car project. If you haven't yet donated, please check out our Sponsorship page to find out how you can help support Team PrISUm.

Beck Group Donates Rapid Prototype of Hyperion Body - August 1, 2011

We extend our thanks to former team member Andrew Earhart, who worked with us at the Beck Group to create a scale model rapid prototype body of Hyperion for wind tunnel testing. The model was manufactured in three pieces using a Z Corp Z350 3D printer and glued together to create the finished model. We are hoping to get some time in an Iowa State wind tunnel during the fall semester to validate the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer simulations of the body we designed for our next solar car.

"Hyperion" Wins the P11 Naming Contest - July 28, 2011

We are pleased to announce that "Hyperion" is the clear winner in the vote to name our 11th generation solar car that will race in the 2012 American Solar Challenge. Zach Noel, the team's mechanical director submitted the name and received a free PrISUm t-shirt as his prize. Thanks to everyone who submitted names and participated in the voting process.

"Hyperion" is a name that has powerful symbolism relating directly to our team's close relationship with the sun... Here are some of its various meanings:

1. A Titan in Greek mythology, son of Uranus and Gaea, father of Helios (sun), Selene (moon), and Eos (dawn)

2. An irregular-shaped outer satellite (moon) of the planet Saturn that tumbles chaotically

3. Name used by Homer for the Greek sun god Helios

P11 Naming Competition - June 9, 2011

The time has come to choose a name for our 11th generation solar car! We welcome name submissions from team members and the general public. Please send your name ideas to solarcar@prisum.org. The team will vote on the car's name in July. If your name wins, you'll receive a free Team PrISUm t-shirt...

Machining P11 Body Molds - May 22, 2011

During the past two weekends, Team PrISUm has been down in Wichita, KS at Harlow Aerostructures machining the molds for the body of our 11th generation solar car. Throughout the past month, team members have been hard at work building the polyurethane foam molds. Machining them is a challenging process that requires massive CNC machinery, a good deal of programming time, and careful execution to do correctly. We are so thankful that the great folks at Harlow were willing to donate their time and equipment once again to ensure that our molds got machined on time. As we've come to expect, they did a great job and we couldn't have asked for better results. Compared to the molds for our last car, there will be a lot less sanding and finish work necessary due to a smaller step over during machining. Check out a movie of the process at our videos page. We'd also like to extend a thank you to Don Hummer Trucking for transporting the molds to and from Wichita. We are very pleased to have met this deadline in our project schedule and completed the process a full semester ahead of last project.

Team PrISUm's Anthelion Races on the Indy Track - May 10, 2011

Team PrISUm just returned from a great week of solar car racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We were competing in the 2011 Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) among a field of 10 solar car teams from universities around the United States. Our race crew consisted of a healthy mix of veterans from the 2010 American Solar Challenge and new team members. Everyone put forth their best effort in overcoming the obstacles we faced and ensuring that Anthelion was ready to race each morning.

Scrutineering went relatively smoothly since it's the second time Anthelion has been through the ropes. We were the 6th team to qualify. During our first day of racing, we noticed a crack in the frame that forced us off the track for the second half of the day. The next morning, we were back on the track and making up lost time and pushing the car to its limits. The tight turns around the track along with the good weather made it hard for us to put a dent in the car's battery pack. By the end of the second day, we were solidly in fourth place.

The last day of racing started out with some rain that slowed all the cars down but as afternoon hit, the weather improved and for the finale of the race, we drove Anthelion as fast as our drivers felt comfortable around the track. Team PrISUm was in third place for the third day lap totals, but this wash't enough to affect our overall placing. Nevertheless, team members are proud of our 4th place finish and we were thrilled to be able to push Anthelion hard throughout the race without any serious electrical issues with our next generation circuit boards. This has been the team's most successful race since P8 Fusion in 2005!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support us at the track and to all of our great sponsors who made our entrance in FSGP 2011 possible. For a more detailed account of the event, you can check out our race blog.