Event Year: 2025
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: NSU University School
Team Name: The NSU Solar Kings
Project Name: The Hyper Quasar
Team Size: 2

The Hyper Quasar

Car Name: The Hyper Quasar

Team Name: The NSU Solar Kings

School Name: NSU University School

Team Members Names: Adam T and Liam C

Design Documentation

Top View without Solar Panel

Side View #1

Side View #2

Back View

Front View

Bottom View

Special Feature of Car – We have a unique solar panel attachment piece that’s adjustable and has strong Velcro attached to it so its secure but still removable

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Project Log

Date	Hours	Tasks / Work Done	Obstacles Encountered	Modifications to Car
8/28	1	We drew our idea of what our car would look like. We started to gather materials for our car. We wanted to have an adjustable solar panel and we wanted to make the car aerodynamic.	We had trouble drawing our design idea for our car.	none
9/4	1	We cut out our car’s body and created a container for our ball. The car was made so air could pass through and we wanted our ball holder to be able to secure the ball.	The body was hard to design and our ball almost got stuck in our first prototype.	body cut out
9/11	1	We figured out where our axles would go on our body and cut gold wires to support our Solar panel.	The gold wires were hard to cut	none
9/18	1	We named our car and tried to attach our wheels to our front axle.	Our wheels kept cracking when we tried to attach them to the axle so it took a while before we succeeded	front wheels + axle attached
9/25	1	We tested our solar panel but unfortunately our wheels cracked and our axle bent while inside our car’s container.	We were frustrated that our wheels cracked and our axles bent because this meant we would have to attach them all over again	front wheels + axle destroyed
10/16	1	We tried to reattach our axle but our wheels broke multiple times.	We had to start over again many times since our wheels kept cracking	none
10/30	1	After a while, we finally were able to build our front wheels and axle.	It took a while before we succeeded Which was quite frustrating.	none
11/6	1	Our front wheels and axle got destroyed before we could attach them so we built and attached our back wheels instead. We chose a small-medium gear ratio because we thought it would give our car the fastest speed.	Our front wheels and axle broke AGAIN. We knew that it’s not because we hit them too hard with the hammer since we had our instructor test this theory. We believe they might have cracked because we decorated them before trying to attach them but other teams didn’t have this problem.	front wheels + axle destroyed. back wheels attached
11/7	1	We built and attached a new pair of front wheels to our car.	It was very stressful to attach our front wheels since we were worried they would break again.	front wheels attached
11/13	1	We assembled our motor and attached it to our car.	it took a few tries to attach our motor at the best angle.	motor attached
11/20	1	We attached a battery pack and a button to our car.	the process of attaching the battery pack and button went smoothly and we didn’t experience any problems	battery pack + button attached to car
12/4	1	Liam constructed an attachment piece to hold up the solar panel	Since Adam was absent, Liam had to assemble the piece by himself which was challenging.	none
12/11	1	we attached our solar panel attachment piece onto our car.	we had trouble figuring out a good way to attach it, but luckily another team had a styrofoam block that they weren’t using and they gave it to us	solar panel attachment piece attached
1/8	1	We attached both our solar panel, and our guide to our car.	we had trouble stripping the wires attached to our solar panel.	solar panel and guide attached
1/15	1	We attached our ball holder and tested our car a few times. Unfortunately, our guide broke off.	we had to stop testing our car because our guide broke off.	Ball holder attached and guide detached
1/22	1	We fixed our guide and tested our car a few times. We found out that it was turning. this might have been why our guide fell off in the first place.	We were especially frustrated that our car was turning since our car last year experienced the same problems which prevented it from doing its best	guide reattached
1/29	1	We tried to adjust our front wheels but they broke off. Unfortunately when we were able to reattach them the car was turning even more.	Our front wheels broke off when we were trying to adjust them. we did this to try and fix the car’s turning	Wheels reattached and adjusted
2/5	1	We adjusted the solar panel attachment piece because it wasn’t angled straight. we thought this might fix the car’s turning.	the solar panel attachment piece was hard to adjust because we had attached it securely to our car.	solar panel attachment piece adjusted
2/26	1	We continued to modify our solar panel attachment piece in hopes of fixing it’s angle.	We had to redo some of our previous work in order to accomplish our goal of fixing the solar panel attachment piece’s angle	solar panel attachment piece modified
3/5	1	Liam practically fixed the solar solar panel attachment piece completely, but our solar panel wasn’t working when he tested it outside.	Liam couldn’t figure out why the solar panel wasn’t working.	solar panel attachment piece modified
3/12	1	we found out that nobody’s solar panels were working and everyone had to get them replaced. after we tried again to fix the car’s turning.	We failed to fix the car’s turning.	solar panel replaced
3/15	3	we added a stronger type of Velcro to better secure our solar panel and adjusted the panel’s angle. we also completely redid our back wheels in hopes of fixing the car’s turning.	It was hard to find the exact place to attach the Velcro and the exact angle to place our solar panel. additionally, even after redoing our back wheels the car was still turning.	New Velcro attached, solar panel adjusted, and back wheels redone
3/18	1.25	Liam replaced the car’s front wheels to fix the turning and later both Liam and Adam worked on separate parts of the webpage.	We had trouble figuring out who would do what for the webpage.	none
3/19	1	We tested our car outside with other teams but for some reason it was turning again. Unfortunately, our guide broke off on one off our tests and we couldn’t participate because of this.	Our car was turning even though Liam thought he had fixed it and we barely got to test our car because our guide for the guideline broke off.	guide detached
3/20	1	Liam fixed the guide by gluing it to a piece of wood and worked on the webpage’s project log. he also added additional info to the webpage	Working on the project log was a highly tedious process	guide fixed
3/23	3	We completed many tasks on the webpage by dividing them equally between us. We were able to get most of the webpage done this way. Additionally we adjusted the angle of our axle a few times in hopes of getting our car to run straight but we were unsuccessful.	We had trouble deciding who would do which tasks. Additionally we had a tough time figuring out how long to make our snack breaks since we still needed to get a lot done.	axle slightly adjusted
3/24	0.5	Adam worked on the top view design drawing throughout the class.	Liam wasn’t there to assist with other parts of the webpage so Adam didn’t get as much work done as usual	none
3/25	2	We worked on various parts of the webpage such as writing the script for the car features video. Liam also adjusted the motor of the car to make it faster and the axles of the car to fix the turning.	Adam forgot to close out the webpage on his computer so a lot of Liam’s progress was deleted making him very frustrated. It also took many attempts to adjust the axle so the car could run decently.	motor and axle adjusted
3/26	1	Adam finished his top view design drawing and after that we worked on different parts of our webpage. We also tested our car in the sun. Additionally, Liam typed his lost progress back into the webpage.	We had to wait quite a while for the sun to come out so we could test our car.	none
3/28	1	We were trying to fix the problem of our car turning by adjusting our front wheels, and we worked on the webpage. Additionally, we finished our car features video!	the car features video was very tedious to make and so was fixing the car’s turning problem.	front wheels adjusted
3/29	4.5	We worked on our webpage and completed our car features video. Additionally, we tried to fix the car’s turning again but ended up breaking off our guide and front wheels. Fortunately, we were able to reattach our guide.	It was very frustrating that we weren’t able to fix the car’s turning and pieces broke off in the process. additionally it took quite a few takes to capture our car features video.	Front wheels detached + guide detached and reattached
4/1	1	We ran the car outside. It was turning. We worked more on the webpage.	We tried to heat the glue and move the axels so the car would go straight.	none
4/2	1	We tried to fix our turning problem. We ran the car outside again. We worked more on the webpage. We replaced the straws and tried to put it all on straight and parallel.	We are making good progress on getting the car to go straight.	none

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Design Drawings

Design Drawing: Side View

Design Drawing: Top View

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Final Car Specifications

Car Size with Panel	Length: 29.5 cm	Width: 16.7 cm	Height: 19 cm
Weight with Panel	235.8 g
Wheel Size	Front wheels: 3.6cm	Back Wheels: 3.6 cm
Gear Ration	motor gear: axel gear 12:64 = 3:16

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Materials Used

Item	Approx. Cost
New:
Pitsco Ray Catcher Solar Panel (3V)	38.25
small white gears, wheels and axels	3.99
Pitsco Motor (3V)	5.25
balsa wood	3.99
plastic straws (2)	2.31
battery pack without switch	0.26
switch	3.85
piece of black binder comb to hold guide wire	0.07
alligator clips (2)	0.14
4 mm thick bendable wire (gold)
Consumables: (these materials are not priced because they were available through the school’s Innovation Lab)
tape
solder
velcro
hot glue
Recycled materials:
foam
plastic cup

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Test Results / Trial Runs

Test Runs 1 – date: 1/21/25

Weather conditions: We ran the car inside in the hall.
Ran on panel or battery? battery

Observations of results: the car veered.

Any recommendations for improvements: the car turned and we wanted to fix it.

Attempt	Time, s (seconds)	Distance, m (meters)	Speed, m/s
1	7.46	17	2.28
2	7,43	17	2.29
3	6.92	17	2.46
4	8.20	17	2.07

Test Runs 2 – date: 2/26/25

Weather conditions: Ran inside in the hall.
Ran on panel or battery? battery

Observations of results: The car is turning to the left.

Any recommendations for improvements: We wanted to fix the turning.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	7.03	17	2.42
2	7.41	17	2.29
3	7.03	17	2.42
4	no finish	17	no finish

Test Runs 3 – date: 3/12/25

Weather conditions: Inside in hall.
Ran on panel or battery? Ran on battery.

Observations of results: The car was mostly straight and fast.

Any recommendations for improvements: we didn’t want to move the wheels too much.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	7.13	17	2.38
2	6.92	17	2.46

Test Runs 4 – date: 3/12/25

Weather conditions: Excellent sun
Ran on panel or battery? Ran outside on solar panel.

Observations of results: the car was turning a bit right

Any recommendations for improvements: For some reason, the car started turning again, and we want to fix it.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	4.09	7.2	1.76
2	4.07	7.2	1.77
3	3.78	7.2	1.90
4	3.97	7.2	1.81

Test Runs 5 – date: 3/26/25

Weather conditions: Excellent Sun
Ran on panel or battery? Solar Panel

Observations of results: Car turning slightly left

Any recommendations for improvements: We are going to heat the hot glue and move one of the wheels so that it will go straight.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	3.5	7.2	2.06
2	3.1	7.2	2.32
3	3.3	7.2	2.18

Test Runs 6 – date: 4/1/25

Weather conditions: Excellent Sun
Ran on panel or battery? Solar Panel

Observations of results: Car is running well but turning left.

Any recommendations for improvements: We are going to heat the hot glue and move one of the wheels so that it will go straight. We did not run it on a guidewire today so that we could get times.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	5.34	11.4	2.13
2	5.22	11.4	2.18
3	6.25	11.4	1.82
4	4.97	11.4	2.29
5	5.54	11,4	2.06
6	5.66	11.4	2.01

Test Runs 7 – date: 4/2/25

Weather conditions: Excellent Sun
Ran on panel or battery? Solar Panel

Observations of results: Car is still turning. It is frustrating.

Any recommendations for improvements: Our car is running well, but we can’t seem to get it to run straight. We think we have it, then it starts to turn again. We ran it today without the guidewire so that we could check the speed.

Attempt	Time, S (seconds)	Distance, M (meters)	Speed, M/S
1	7.88	18	2.28
2	7.54	18	2.39
3	7.28	18	2.47

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Video of Our Car Running

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Car Features Video

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Additional Information

Our Original Car Ideas

Electrical Schematics: These are the schematics of the electrical circuits. It is the same DC motor in both drawings.

Battery Circuit schematic

Solar Circuit schematic

Adam’s 3D design of the car

Liam’s 3D design of the car

Below is a link to a video that shows a 360 view Liam’s 3D model

Original Bloxels Games

Adam’s Solar Car Game (Note: you move with the arrow keys)

play.bloxels.com/arcade/24537365

Liam’s Solar Car Game (Note: you move with the arrow keys)

https://play.bloxels.com/arcade/84833917