Friday, October 26, 2012

Off To A Great Start!!

   For everybody who has been waiting for the return of the Solar Knights, your prayers have been answered! We're back and already off to an amazing start. We have recovered from last year's little slump and are making significant progress. First of all, we have a brand new team sponsor: Mr. John Martin. He was the school's robotics team sponsor last year and has graciously accepted our invite to become our sponsor as well. With his help, we came in all summer and finished a variety of solar and electric vehicle projects.
    First order of business is to announce our new Solar Captain........ Josh Garcia!
   Our first project of course is Solar Knight III. Over the summer we came in and got the car running again! We've even taken it out to a few school football games. Our goal for it now is to get it race ready.
Matt Medosky teaching incoming freshmen about Solar Knight 3
Josh working on auxiliary wiring for Solar Knight 3
Matt checking each panel on Solar Knight 3's array
 Our second project is Solar Knight I! That's right, our first solar car has finally returned to its original home. Over summer, we were able to hook the batteries back up and get it to run. However, like SKIII, it still needs a lot of work before it can be considered for any cross country solar race.
Solar Knight I resting peacefully in it's original home
   Another new expansion project we have undertaken is an electric go-cart. It was originally a Senior Research Project a few years ago but was abandoned and left to rust. Fernando, one of our most recent new members, found it and jumped on the opportunity to fix it up.
Fernando working on the Electric Go-Cart
   As you can see, we have a lot of work ahead of us, but with our team and the new members we have gained, we're all confident we can get every single one completed. Our goal for this year is to finish Solar Knight III (and hopefully Solar Knight I) and compete in this year's Solar Car Challenge from Forth Worth, Texas to Los Angeles! It's a huge goal, but we're already working hard to get there.
   We're all looking forward to what this new school year will bring!