John Muir High student Rodrigo Lagoretta, right, talks to JPL division manger Willis Chapman on Monday, November 14, 2011, about the power source on a solar boat students built that won a regional competition earlier this year. (Roger Wilson/Pasadena Sun)
by Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun
A team of John Muir High School students who built and raced an award-winning solar-powered boat visited Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday to talk shop with scientists and engineers.
Muir’s Solar Boat Club won first place in May at the annual high-school Solar Cup competition in Temecula, sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District.
The Muir team’s 16-foot wooden watercraft utilizes four solar panels to charge batteries that power an electric motor. Constructed with the help of JPL and Caltech volunteers, the single-occupant vessel reached speeds of about 15 miles-per-hour, besting craft created by dozens of other high school teams from throughout Southern California.
