Quick Links: October 3rd

We've been forwarded a schedule for WSC 2017 scrutineering:

October 2
1200	77: Blue Sky	5: SunSPEC
October 3
0730	88: Kogakuin	15: WSU
0800	14: Flinders	45: Lodz
0830	75: UNSW	18: UiTM
0900	20: DUEM	25: NIT
1200	28: Neul-Hae-Rang	32: Principia
1230	35: IVE	82: KUSTC
1300	71: ITU	37: Goko
October 4
0730	3: Nuon	21: Twente
0800	10: Tokai	8: Punch
0830	16: Stanford	2: Michigan
0900	70: Sonnenwagen Aachen	7: AUSRT
1200	4: Antakari	43: ANU
1230	52: Illini	34: RVCE
1300	38: NWU	46: JU
October 5
0730	9: PrISUmn	11: Bochum
0800	22: MDH	23: Tehran
0830	42: TAFE SA	40: Eindhoven
0900	30: Team Arrow	49: Siam Tech
1200	53: Mississippi Choctaw	94: Minnesota
1230	95: KUAS/Apollo	12: CUER

It's currently 10:30am on the 3rd in Darwin, so several teams have been through scrutineering already, although we don't know how many (if any) have passed yet. The World Solar Challenge has actually been updating their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, so go and check them out.

Note that Kogakuin's Wing has no signs of damage, so the rumors that they had a wreck testing in the outback in SA seem to have been erroneous.

The rest of the teams have arrived at Hidden Valley: Michigan, Stanford, Iowa, Bochum, TAFE SA, and Apollo are all there now. I still haven't see photos of Siam Tech's Nikola or Tehran's Persian Gazelle IV, however...

Feast your eyes on NWU's Naledi: The array tilts! I've been waiting a while for a picture of this.

This year, MDH is the unlucky team with last-minute battery shipping issues. They're pressing onward and building a brand-new battery in the pits at Hidden Valley; hopefully they'll get it running well enough to compete. MIT was in a very similar position in 2011 and managed to perform acceptably.

In more unfortunate news, CUER has wrecked their car while testing somewhere around Alice Springs (presumably at the Alice Springs Inland Dragway). The team states "The CUER vehicle Mirage has been involved in an incident during testing at a facility in Alice Springs over the weekend. The driver was taken to hospital where she was treated for minor abrasions and fractures, and has since been discharged. Mirage has sustained major damage and regrettably will be unable to compete in the Challenger Class for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge."

I'm glad everyone is still alive. With a simple rear roll hoop, there's not a lot protecting the driver from frontal impacts if the car ends up on its side at speed. Broken bones are no joke; I think this might be the worst solar car driver injury in over a decade. I'm pretty sure the drivers walked away from the car when MIT flipped in 2005, when Stanford wrecked in 2007, when Umicore, Nuon and Twente wrecked in 2009, and CUER's own incidents in 2013...

(For those playing along at home, CUER is now two-for-three on wrecking their "Resolution Concept" vehicles during testing in AU prior to the start of WSC...)