Blue Sky Solar Racing: Difference between revisions

== About ==

=== Design Philosophy ===

With experience of the competition’s grueling road conditions, Blue Sky Solar Racing Team returned to the American Solar Challenge in 2003 with Faust II, the successor to Blue Sky’s vehicle in their first American Solar Challenge attempt. Traveling over across 8 states from [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], to [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], Faust II proved to be an extremely capable race car. In contrast to American Solar Challenge 2001, Faust II was able to traverse the grueling terrain with no major on-road difficulties due to the improvements made to the vehicle. Logging 79 hours, 51 minutes, and 39 seconds of race time, Blue Sky captured 11th place overall and placed first out of all teams of equivalent solar array technology.<ref>"Winter 2003 Newsletter". Blue Sky Solar Racing.</ref> The team was also presented with the American Solar Challenge Safety Award for outstanding safety practices during the competition.

=== World Solar Challenge 2007 ===

=== Blue Sky Project ===

As Blue Sky Solar Racing’s first project, Blue Sky Project served as an experimental effort for the team to learn more about the production of solar vehicles. The vehicle was designed as a single-seated four-wheeler with a weight of 850&nbsp;lbs.<ref name="blueskysolar.utoronto.ca">Car History. [http://www.blueskysolar.utoronto.ca/blueskyprogram/teamhistory/ "Team History"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101003070309/http://www.blueskysolar.utoronto.ca/blueskyprogram/teamhistory/ |date=October 3, 2010 }}. Blue Sky Solar Racing. Retrieved 2010-12-12</ref> The project was completed in 1997 and was immediately put to test at the Florida SunDay Challenge 1997. The vehicle achieved extremely encouraging results for the rookie team and created a solid foundation and strong motivation for the team to continue developing solar vehicles.

=== Blue II ===

Upon the success of the Blue Sky Project, Blue Sky Solar Racing decided to immediately begin production of an improved solar vehicle – Blue II.  With a much greater power output than the Blue Sky Project, Blue II was capable of achieving a top speed of 110&nbsp;km/h and it was as a key milestone in the technical development of the team.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Blue II was completed in 1999 and competed in SunRayce '99. After the vehicle was decommissioned, it served for several years as the main display in the team’s community education events in recognition of its milestone achievements.

=== Faust ===

After learning from the experiences of their previous experimental vehicles, Blue Sky Solar Racing was prepared to make a splash on the international stage. In the design of their third generation vehicle – Faust – the team focused on several key concepts to produce a solar vehicle that was competitive in international competitions; mainly, to minimize drag and weight. This led to several drastic departures in their design traditions. First of all, in contrast to Blue II, Faust was designed as a three-wheeler to minimize rolling resistance and decrease the overall weight of the vehicle.<ref>"Spring 2000 Newsletter". Blue Sky Solar Racing.</ref> Secondly, the chassis for Faust was made of an extremely lightweight hollow tube aluminum space frame which decreased the overall weight of the vehicle to only 440&nbsp;lbs, nearly half of the weight of Blue II.<ref name="blueskysolar.utoronto.ca"/>  These departures in design lead to vast performance improvements which made it possible for the vehicle to achieve a top speed of 140&nbsp;km/h. Construction Faust was completed in 2001 and it participated in two competitions in the same year.

=== Faust II ===

Looking to improve upon the success of Faust, its successor – Faust II – aimed primarily to strengthen the build of the body and reduce weight, thus allowing it to achieve faster speeds. Learning from the damage that the grueling road conditions in the American Solar Challenge 2001 brought to Faust, the team fitted Faust II with a composite fiber cloth body which made it extremely durable while also reducing the vehicle’s body weight by 40&nbsp;lbs.<ref>"Fall 2002 Newsletter". Blue Sky Solar Racing.</ref> Several other improvements were also made to the battery and motor of the vehicle. Production of Faust II was completed in 2003 and it participated in the American Solar Challenge 2003.

=== Cerulean ===

While in the production phase of Faust II, Blue Sky Solar Racing began design on their fifth generation vehicle – Cerulean. Unlike its predecessors, Cerulean was designed as a double-seater vehicle; this allowed the team challenge themselves by attempting a new solar vehicle design with entirely different specifications and constraints.