This project worked heavily in tandem with SDG goal #7. Solar Panels are a form of clean energy, as during their process of electricity production, they have 0 carbon dioxide emission.

However, it is important to remember that the process of extracting the resources to create the solar panel is not a carbon free process. Heavy mining machinery and transportation of materials produce large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Resource extraction is one of the most energy intensive processes in the world, and almost all of the energy used is generated from the combustion of fossil fuels. 

How does a Solar Panel Work? - A solar panel uses high energy photons to knock valence electrons, usually off silicon, to generate an electric current. Solar panels do not work with low energy photons, as they do not have enough energy to eject the valence electrons out of the orbit of the silicon atoms. Using the ejected electrons, an electric current flows, powering whatever is necessary. For long term energy storage, solar panels can be hooked up to batteries. Batteries are widely used to store solar energy for cloudy days and/or night time. 

Solar panels are one of the most prominent forms of sustainable energy available today. However, many forget that the materials needed to produce solar panels are expensive and harvested primarily by expensive, fossil-fuel driven mining equipment, which has a heavy impact on the environment. It is important not to be ignorant of such facts, as seemingly innocent and “sustainable” practices and machines may have some very serious negative impacts on the environment, as their materials are not usually harvested in the most environmentally friendly or ethical manner.

Duct tape is a strong, watertight, cloth based tape. It was invented by a combat engineer in WW2 in 1942. It is a commonplace item nowadays, used to secure items and for other various utility. The name is derived from a post war use of taping ventilation ducts, however, it no longer serves that purpose anymore. 

This was not a resource originally meant to be used in this project. This was used as a makeshift solution for when our boat could not more forward properly. 

The solar panel mount needs to be form fitting with the solar panel given to us (1.5v solar panel). To save weight, it was necessary to rib the design and remove unnecessary weight from the boat. We thought it was best to avoid solar panel angulation, as we did not know which way the boat would be facing during the race.

Designing a propeller in a CAD tool is an interesting challenge, as the irregular shape of the propeller and the curvature creates some slight obstacles when CAD-ing the propeller. To combat this, I used a center helical model and a 3D fit spline to create an outline for a singular propeller blade. Next, I filled in the outline and thickened it out, as well as using a circular pattern to create all 3-4 propeller blades (we made two variations). It was important for the blades to have adequate sizing to generate enough force, but not too much size, as the drag would be too much for the small given motor to run properly. Finally, a center piece was designed to attach the propeller to the propeller shaft given to us. 

The boat hull is the most challenging part of this process, as it needs to be light, waterproof, and stable. The hull of our boat was relatively thin, and the inside was left hollow to save more weight. However, it was not too thin, to avoid water leaking in through the cracks in PLA (which is not considered waterproof). To solve the stability issue, a keel was installed on the bottom of the hull to help maintain vertical stability. However, one thing we did not fully account for was horizontal direction control. As our boat did not have a rudder, it had a difficult time keeping straight. As displayed later in the prototype and testing sections, we had to make some makeshift solutions for this issue. 

During our race, we noticed that our boat would consistently drift to the left, in a pretty sharp manner. The sharp, protruding edges of our solar panel mount would intersect at the edges of the canal, often stopping our boat and turning it backwards. To fix this, originally we strapped duct tape to the front of the boat to the left edge of our solar panel mount, in hopes of smoothing it out and creating a buffer allowing the boat to glide along the wall. When this did not work, we created a makeshift "rudder" on the right side of the boat to counteract the leftward drifting motion by creating a similar drag force on the other side. 

We still do not understand why this leftward drifting motion happened. I jumped to the conclusion that it might have been the torquing forces of the motor, as most old centrally engine mounted propeller planes had this issue as well. This is most likely a false conclusion, as our classmates did not experience this issue. 

Our first race had the issue mentioned prior, of our boat drifting suddenly to the left. We did not anticipate this issue, as our boat had all sections mounted on the center and no external drag forces acting upon it in the water. There was no wind either. I believe it might have been the work of the torquing motion of the motor, as most early centrally mounted aircraft had historical problems with. 

Our final race we made one final adjustment. I added a piece of duct tape mounted face-forward on the right side of the boat to create a dragging motion on the right side of the boat, in an effort to counteract the leftwards turning movement. 

At first, the dragging portion of duct tape generated too much dragging force, turning the boat to the right. After some slight tweaks, the boat could move straight without the need of a rudder or any major hull redesigns.