Solar car hopes for Australia

Shoved off to the side of the building, in a space that makes a cramped dorm room feel as spacious as the Sistine Chapel, sits the space reserved for the Ohio State Solar Vehicle Team.

The Center for Automotive Research houses all of OSU's student motorsport projects.

The OSU Solar team is a group of about three dozen undergraduate students working to design, build and ultimately race the RSFirefly, a solar powered car built entirely from scratch and capable of traveling over 80 mph.

According to team leader Patrick Cleary, the previous OSU Solar Team closed up shop over six years ago.

OSU failed to enter a solar car for those six years, until Cleary tried to gain support to build another solar car. Gaining that support wasn't easy.

"I must have spoken with over a hundred people just to get this team started, let alone organized," said Cleary, a senior in materials science and engineering.

Eventually, he gained not only the support he needed but also the funds, grants and building space to begin his project. The most difficult task, however, was getting a team together.

"I decided I wanted to start solar car in winter 2005; however, it took until fall of 2006 to fully mobilize a team," Cleary said.

The team includes about 40 undergraduate students from all majors and backgrounds. The diverse team has meetings during the evening to discuss what will be built next for the race car.

During Monday night's meeting, Cleary spoke briefly about the next stage in the development of the RSFirefly.

"Right now I want to have the body design for the car done by the end of the month," Cleary said. "We're going to base our body design off MIT's solar car."

The car will be street legal when it is finished, complete with lights and turn signals, he said. He also said he will obtain a title for the car.

The idea of building a race car is to race it, and Cleary and his team did have a goal to enter the car into the American Solar Challenge which, according to the event's Web site, is a 2,500 mile cross country event. That race, however, has been canceled.

"The Department of Energy didn't pony up the money," Cleary said. "They may still reinstall the funding so 2008 is looking very optimistic."

With that race off the 2007 schedule, the OSU Solar Team's goal is to now enter the car in the 3,000 kilometers Panasonic World Solar Challenge in Australia, in October 2007. The cost of transporting the team to the other side of the world may be a problem though.

"It's going to cost about $5,000 per person to send over there," said Darrin Orr, the Facility and Student Projects coordinator at CAR. "Plus because of the size of the car it will have to be sent by a boat. So it's going to be expensive."

But Cleary is optimistic that with sponsorship from Honda, grant money from Fifth Third Bank and anticipated future support, the team can meet their goals and race in Australia.

Cleary is determined to make this all work and, according to Dr. Steven Bechtel, it's been Cleary's determination that has made this project work as well as it has.

"He's very energetic and very committed to the team," said Bechtel, one of the team's advisers. "It's been difficult for him starting this team from scratch, but he has been a very good leader."

For more information on the team, visit www.osusolar.org.