Student Initiatives at RWTH
Solar Car Race in the Australian Outback – The Sonnenwagen Team
As a student initiative, Team Sonnenwagen Aachen builds solar-powered race cars for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia. The race starts in Darwin and crosses the entire Outback to the finish line in Adelaide – a total of 3,022 kilometers. The car is powered exclusively by solar energy.
Team Sonnenwagen is made up of 50 students from various disciplines at RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.
A Well-Coordinated Team
Team Sonnenwagen is organized into seven departments: The Aerodynamics department designs the outer shell as a CAD model [computer-aided model]. The Structural department uses this to simulate and manufacture a stable carbon mold. Finally, the team from the Chassis department installs the suspension, steering, and brakes. The largest department, Electrical Engineering, then takes care of components such as the electric motor, the battery, and the solar cells. The Driving Strategy department then optimizes the racing process. In addition to the technical departments, the Marketing and Sponsoring teams are responsible for financing the project, managing sponsors, and driving awareness and sharing the idea behind all of the team's solar cars and the Solar Challenges they participate in.
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge pits 50 international teams against each other for seven days under the Australian sun. For example, teams from the University of Cambridge, Delft University of Technology, Tōkai University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are participating.
The race is divided into two classes: the “Challenger” and the “Cruiser” class.
The solar cars in the “Challenger” class have only one seat and are designed solely to be as efficient as possible. The cars in the “Cruiser” class must seat at least two people and the car is also evaluated in terms of its suitability for everyday use.
In October 2023, Team Sonnenwagen Aachen once again took part in the race in Australia with their “Challenger”, the Covestro Adelie. The team had been in the Australian outback for a month beforehand to test the car and they prepared as well as possible for the race. Due to an accident, Team Sonnenwagen had to prematurely end the race. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the car sustained only minor damage.
Since Team Sonnenwagen was founded in 2015, the team has participated in the race in Australia three times. 2017 was their first time taking part, and the “Sonnenwagen 1” team was presented with the “Best Newcomer” award.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2021 in Australia had to be canceled. Instead, the team participated in the Solar Challenge Morocco on a one-off basis and finished in fifth place. The first victory for the team came in the fall of 2022 at the European Championship with its “Covestro Photon” solar car.
– Author: Felix Nupnau Perez
From Small-Scale Rockets in Aachen to the World’s Largest Rocket Contest – The Space Team Aachen of RWTH and FH Aachen
Within four years, Space Team Aachen of RWTH and FH Aachen went from their very first attempts of flying small-scale rockets on an open field close to Aachen to the largest rocketry competition in the world in New Mexico, USA.
Founded in 2019, Space Team Aachen has become the largest technical student initiative in Aachen. In November 2021, a new team was formed with the aim of building the first ever supersonic rocket of the Space Team. In June 2023, Aquila was launched at the Spaceport America Cup (SAC). This made Space Team Aachen the first and only German team to ever participate and gave the team the opportunity to represent German aerospace engineering on an international stage.
19 months of intense work, numerous technical reviews, continuous efforts to scrape together the necessary funding, a very successful test launch, and a 24-hour-flight later, the team arrived in Las Cruces.
The first few days were marked by countless procedural tests and assembly rehearsals. During the day, the team took refuge in the garage to be shielded from the burning sun, while at night, they moved their workshop to the terrace, oftentimes working until 3am.
The safety check-in marked the official beginning of the SAC followed by the jury’s verdict. Space Team Aachen impressed the jury with their thorough documentation and testing (scoring 250/260!) and their fully pyro-less recovery system. The exceptional score of 235/240 for design and build quality resulted in a tie for first place for Space Team Aachen in the non-flight categories among the 119 participating teams.
The days ahead were marked by grueling sun, dust devils, lukewarm water mixed with neon-colored electrolytes, a cooler full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and – above all – a sense of excitement that is hard to put into words.
3, 2, 1, Lift Off!
They do say “third time’s the charm” – and this competition definitely tested the team’s nerves. Their first launch attempt got scrubbed as weather conditions deteriorated. Beaten down by sleepless nights, morale was at its lowest point, but the team got together, left at 3:45am the next day, and absolutely outperformed itself preparing for the second launch attempt.
3, 2, 1, lift off!
The team’s hearts skipped a beat just before that bright red flame became visible and Aquila shot up into the clear, blue sky. A stable lift-off. Telemetry logged … until they lost connection about nine seconds in. A post-flight analysis revealed that a sensor of the commercially bought board computer was flawed. This led to an unscheduled early deployment and resulted in a ballistic flight trajectory.
A series of fortunate circumstances and the tireless effort of the team’s recovery team helped to mend most of the rocket. Even though the launch did not go as perfectly as planned, this is what the team came for: designing, testing, flying, failing, and all over again on repeat. And one thing is certain: They will be back!
Space Team Aachen
Founded in 2019 by a few space enthusiasts, Space Team Aachen has become the largest technical student initiative in Aachen, now numbering over 160 students. They are currently working on seven different projects from rockets to satellites to rovers and scientific experiments. The Space Team’s ultimate goal is to bring together like-minded students and build a knowledge hub in Aachen that promotes space-related research for generations to come.
Website: https://www.spaceteamaachen.de/
– Author: Sandra Rohfleisch
Historic Success at the Hockenheimring
The celebration at the award ceremony at the Hockenheimring was huge. This year, the “Ecurie Aix” Formula Student Team from RWTH Aachen University won the “Formula Student Germany” competition for the first time. It is the biggest success in the club’s history to date. Founded in 1999, the club has participated in the global student design competition since 2002. With over 500 teams participating, it is the largest and most important competition of its kind. The name of the RWTH racing team is a combination of the French words “Ecurie” for racing-team and “Aix-la-Chapelle,” French for Aachen.
After a successful start to the season at the “Formula Student Austria” event in Spielberg in July, the “Formula Student East” at the Hungaroring in Budapest was rather disappointing. A sensor for route detection failed. Even the replacement sensor provided at short notice by RWTH’s ika (Institute of Automotive Engineering) could not remedy the situation. It was the final “Formula Student Germany” event that brought such fantastic success. The Aachen team managed to impressively climb from 6th to 1st place in the endurance race on the last day and beat out over 70 other teams to win the overall competition in the electric class.
Around 80 motorsport enthusiasts developed, designed, and manufactured the Ecurie Aix team’s current “eax02” racer for over seven months and then presented it at the grand rollout at the Aula of the RWTH Main Building last May.
It can be operated by a driver or drive completely autonomously, and on top of everything, it is electrically powered. “The whole process is so special because it is completely up to the students to make it work. There is no professor to supervise us or tell us what to do,” says Frederick Lockemann, former technical team leader at Ecurie Aix.
– Author: Dietrich Hunold