By Paul Chase
Last Sunday the Kinetic Sculpture Team met to work out what went well during last month's race in Baltimore, and to talk about what will go even better this coming year. The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race will run on May 6th, 2023 - only 324 build days remaining! After meeting a new member, Kevin, and another current NL member, Josh, who were interested in joining the team, we reviewed the sculpture itself and tried to figure out logistics, and broad design topics.
For 2022, the goal was to get to the race - and while we did so in an absolutely astoundonishingly [ed. note - is this a word? I think it deserves to be] fashion (check out our trophy!), our goal for 2023 is to build a sculpture robust enough that it can form the basis of a multi-year design. Curt and Fabiana suggested that we start with the wheels; bike tires are lightweight, but, well, that's about the only thing they've got going on. Larger wheels would help navigate the course obstacles, and stronger wheels would get us to the end without blowing up a tire like we did last race. So - a bit of research and a bit of build will mark the near future - can we make a light, strong, giant, cheap, and repeatable wheel? Next time we meet on Thursday, June 30th we'll talk about how to build, test and drive a good wheel. See you then!