Open House Invitation
We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season! As we re-enter the academic year, we want to provide an update on how things are going. First and foremost, we would like to invite anyone who is in Colorado to our Open House on Saturday, Feburary 3rd, from 11am to 4pm. We will have our finalized machine on display, and our entire team wil walk you through it, explaining how everything works. We will also serve pizza and drinks. Please feel free to invite anyone, including friends and family—the more, the merrier! It is also a great experience for our team to explain the systems they work on. The Open House will take place at our workshop in Lafayette, 1219 Rock Creek Circle, Unit .1 It can be a little tricky to find, so fi you have any questions en route, feel free to call or text Ferin at 970-889-5437.
Test Dig Results
We are thrilled to announce the results of our test dig, which took place from January 7th to the 13th. Over the past week, we faced challenging weather conditions, trudging through snow and tackling intricate electrical tasks while contending with the numbing cold. Despite these challenges, our efforts paid of. We were able to accomplish a number of club firsts including our very first high power turn on, with all safety and monitoring equipment working exactly as expected. We also harnessed and integrated all critical systems for digging, conducted gripper inflation testing, performed hexapod push testing, executed an integrated cutter head spin test, built the launch stand, and tested the push plate with the teeth on the launch stand.
Unfortunately, the morning we planned to dig was the morning of a cold front. Heavy snow and winds arrived, with the temperature staying below -12F on site. Since that was about 40F colder
than our power equipment is rated for, we had to call of the dig of for safety. Still, we made great progress (see the picture below to understand how much farther we are this year than last), and collected super useful data that will inform our machine improvements. We are also in a great spot as we can spend the next two months iterating tested systems and performing end-to-end testing on the machine. Again, we would just like to say thank you to Sunbelt Rentals, Marv's Towing, Global Machinery, Dan Grollman, and our sponsors in general, none of this would be possible without your generous support.
A Grand Tradition Continues
As you may know, CU Hyperloop has a... history of personal vehicles breaking down while we are pushing to achieve our goals. During our drive to Austin TX for the competition last March, we had two major car failures and one minor one. Those included a massive tire blow out, and an exploded spark plug. Per tradition, the test dig was no different. On the drive from the workshop, Mateo Medellin, our propulsion lead, had a wonderful chance to see the wheel fall of his car. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and he was able to get things fixed. We may have to mandate maintenance checks before we drive to Austin this March, wish us luck!
