Clean Snowmobile Challenge draws student teams to develop greener machines
Next month, four teams supported by the National Science Foundation will compete in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Michigan. The goal is to develop snowmobiles that leave less of an impact on the environment.
Driving the competition is a growing demand for cleaner snowmobiles. Just as off-roaders are getting shut out of recreation lands for a variety of issues, snowmobilers are finding fewer areas to play. Priorities of the competition include quieter, less-polluting engines that still offer performance. The NSF also sees potential for increased snowmobile use in very sensitive research facilities such as Greenland and Antarctica if the environmental impact can be reduced.
Winners of the competition will be allowed to test their snowmobile in Greenland.
[Source: National Science Foundation]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 4:12PM (2/27/2007)
I’m betting on Raser Symetron™ Enhanced Hybrid Electric Snowmobile http://www.rasertech.com/apps_snowmobiles.html. I wonder if they are competing?
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Jeff 7:53AM (2/28/2007)
Coool. I'm a regular on this site, and I'm on the McGill University team. We were the first team to show up with an electric snowmobile a few years back, albeit one that didn't work very well. Last year was my first year, we had a pretty decent electric sled with a lithium pack from Lithium Technology Corporation, but we ran into some serious problems with our eCycle motor on the first day of the competition. We still got to send our sled up to Greenland, though the battery pack had some issues up there.
This year we're heading back with a completely redone electric sled and a brand new series-hybrid snowmobile. The electric is running really well, its definitely getting some more reliability testing this year... i rolled it a couple weeks ago. The hybrid is still under construction, but we've got high hopes. I'm off to the machine shop as we speak to build the mounts for our custom battery packs.
Wish us luck!
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