Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Solar Cars!
Students started the world's longest-running high school solar car race. The eight teams are heading to the finish line at JPL on July 16, 2005. Image courtesy: Dell.
July 08, 2005
High school students from across the country and Mexico
are on a 1,600-mile race in hand-built, solar-powered cars.
The 10th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge started
today in Round Rock, Texas, and will wind its way through Texas,
New Mexico and Arizona en route to the finish line at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
There are 180 students participating in the race from high schools
in Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Indiana, California and
Mexico. The California team is represented by students from Walnut
High School in Walnut, Calif. The 16 students on Walnut High's
"QuikSolar" team have been preparing for the competition for more
than a year, applying the skills they've learned in the classroom
to design and build their solar car.
Racers will use laptop computers and wireless technology to gauge
solar car battery usage, monitor weather patterns, track competitors
via global positioning systems and upload daily statistics. The race
judges will also use the technology to track the eight teams as they
travel along the course.
The last leg of the race runs from Citrus College in Glendora, Calif.,
to the finish at JPL on Saturday, July 16. The public is invited to
watch the end of the race. A complete map of the race route is on the
Internet at http://www.winstonsolar.org/race/route2005.shtml.
For more information on the race on the Internet, visit:
http://www.winstonsolar.org/race
For more information on JPL on the Internet, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .
Natalie Godwin (818) 354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
2005-112
