It makes sense that whenever we send a vehicle to Mars, it better be an advanced design using the latest technology.
The same thinking goes into the “Rover Rendezvous,” the 2025 La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float that depicts a rover on Mars and plus some weird alien creatures popping out of the red-planet’s surface.
About 85% of what makes this float go is electric power, making it much cleaner and greener than the other 38 floats gliding down Colorado Boulevard on Wednesday, Jan. 1, for the 136th Rose Parade.
Those are powered by internal combustion engines usually fueled by gasoline, confirmed Steve Perry, director/chairman of float construction for the Tournament of Roses.
On the La Cañada Flintridge main float, most of the engines — except for one — have been swapped out to run on battery-electric power, said officials from the LCFTRA, making their float a stand-out among all the other floats in terms of clean energy.
“Now, it is the biggest plug-in hybrid,” half-joked Ernest Koeppen, president of the LCFTRA, the organization that has been building their own floats since the 1979 parade.
Electric propulsion powers the satellite float that rides in front of the main float. Also, the propane-powered animation engine and hydraulics of the main float have been replaced with a battery-electric powered motor and generator, Koeppen reported.
In addition, two of the three internal combustion engines (ICE) that had been powered by gasoline on the main float in the past, have been replaced with electric-powered, zero-emission engines for the 2025 parade, said Koeppen.
“We have 1 ton of batteries on board,” he said.
Koeppen said the group was ready to replace the third engine with a battery pack but ran out of time. That engine runs on propane. Just finding the right kind of batteries and fitting them onto the float requires a custom job and just the right fit.
While the float was being judged on Tuesday for an award as it sat in the middle of Hampton Road in LCF, Koeppen mimicked his call to battery manufacturers when asked about going green. “I said I need something that will move 30,000 pounds and also control things that move, while it is moving (down the parade route) for about five hours,” he said.
That order could not be filled in time.
But Koeppen and his team will be building the 2026 float soon. He hopes to have the last ICE on the float chassis replaced with batteries sometime in February, making next year’s an all EV float.
“You know, you can come up with all the cool ideas you want but there is a hard deadline,” he said. “You can’t say um, can we wait one week?” he said.
The self-built LCF float also relies on technology from NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) within LCF, and AeroVironment, Inc., a San Gabriel Valley company that is a leader in unmanned aerial and ground equipment.
The float takes viewers on a joyride on Mars via a modified Mars Rover, featuring newly discovered water, a flying helicopter and hovering drone. Also, Murphy The Alien pilots a flying saucer while sipping a power drink. Volunteers of the self-built float say their design was prophetic since NASA recently confirmed the existence of water encased in rock on Mars.
“This float is a milestone,” said Tim Grochow, a LCF resident who was watching the judging on Tuesday along with about 100 others. “We lead in a lot of technology.”
Some other related Rose Parade stories:
