Elon Musk's Hyperloop Could Soon Be A Reality

In August of 2013, Billionaire inventor Elon Musk unveiled a futuristic plan for a new type of transport that would shoot capsules of passengers along a tube at around the speed of sound.

 Elon Musk, one of the brains behind the online payment system PayPal, and SpaceX claims his solar-powered 'Hyperloop' could herald a revolution in travel.and change they way we commute forever but at that time no one seemed to be sure of how will this idea be realized or what will it take to build such a transport system that would shoot pods full of people around the country in above-ground tubes at 800 mph.

 The idea he proposed consisted of capsules carrying six to eight people would depart every 30 seconds, with tickets costing around £13 each way.
 In his proposal released online, Musk wrote: 'Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome (someone please do this), the only option for super-fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment.'. Musk believes it would take just 30 minutes to travel the 381 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco – half the time it takes in a plane – and likened the passenger experience to Disneyland's rocket ride Space Mountain.

 This seems a bit non-realistic? Does it?
Fortunately for futurists and people who enjoy picking apart complicated plans, a California-based startup has taken Musk up on his challenge to develop and build the Hyperloop. The crowdsourced firm has around 100 engineers on the projects, and nearly all of them have day jobs at companies like Boeing, NASA, Yahoo!, Airbus, SpaceX, and Salesforce.

Dirk Ahlborn, the CEO of the new company, says it seemed the perfect way to develop the plans, with a site called JumpStartFund that aimed to crowdsource ideas. So they reached out to SpaceX, proposed the project on their online platform, and created a subsidiary company to get to work: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc.



 Checkout this amazing video which provides the digital demonstration of Elon Musk's Hyperloop:






 It’s less of a standard company than a group of about 100 engineers all over the country who spend their free time brainstorming ideas in exchange for stock options. So far, the team has made progress in three main areas: the capsules, the stations, and the route. Although, Ahlborn doesn’t expect to have the technical feasibility study finished until mid-2015.

 What is the root technology to be used to accomplish the project?
There will be a hovering capsule inside a low-pressurized tube on top of pylons, which can reach speeds of up to 760 mph.
'The only resistance would be the air in front of the capsule, which we moved to the back by using a compressor,' Hyperloop CEO Dirk Ahlborn said.
Trains of capsules would shoot through the almost air-free tube at up to 760mph accelerated by magnets which would also keep each pod on a steady course.Each capsule would float on a cushion of air it creates as it speeds along – similar to an air hockey table.

 The transport experts received the proposal with scepticism, citing barriers, such as the threat of earthquakes in the region. But nevertheless, earthquakes and weather conditions damage existing transport systems as well.

Experts say Musk's track record could help the plan become a reality. "Hyperloop is quite an old science fiction idea but Elon Musk is the sort of man who could make it work," said physicist Martin Archer from Imperial College London.

 Musk claims the scheme can power itself through solar energy.
'By placing solar panels on top of the tube, the Hyperloop can generate far in excess of the energy needed to operate.
'This takes into account storing enough energy in battery packs to operate at night and for periods of extended cloudy weather', he claims.

 Ahlborn expects to start building the first in a series of prototypes sometime in 2015. A final product “can be built within the decade,” Ahlborn says. “That’s for sure.”

 For now we have to use the same old transport systems that cost far more and consume more energy per passenger per journey than the Hyperloop concept. This technology will surely revolutionize our existing commute systems. Thanks to the concept by Elon Musk.

 Join us in the discussion below on what more amazing ideas can change the existing standards of transport to help improve the present situation.

 Information Source: wired.com 

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