Hyperloop One is
developing a
futuristic
transportation
concept known as
the "Hyperloop,"
which was first
proposed by SpaceX
and Tesla founder
Elon Musk in 2013.
Credit: Hyperloop
One
A futuristic transportation concept known as
the "Hyperloop" is undergoing the first public
test today of one of its key components — an
important milestone for the pioneering system
first envisioned by SpaceX and Tesla founder
Elon Musk.
A startup known as Hyperloop One (formerly
known as Hyperloop Technologies) is
conducting a test of the Hyperloop system's
electric motor in the Nevada desert, running it
at speeds of up to 300 mph (483 km/h), the
The test is meant to signal the start of work
on an actual Hyperloop transportation
system, which was proposed by Musk in
2013. The concept would see people zoom
between Los Angeles and San Francisco in
only 30 minutes, sitting inside pods that
speed through low-pressure tubes at roughly
760 mph (1,220 km/h). [ Photos: Elon Musk's
Superfast 'Hyperloop' Transit System of the
Future]
Hyperloop One is performing the propulsion
open-air test on a 0.62-mile (1 km) track at
the Apex Industrial Park in north Las Vegas.
The test comes days after a competing
company, Hyperloop Transportation
Technologies, announced that it will license a
technology dubbed passive magnetic
levitation for use in transportation systems.
(There are several companies working on
Hyperloop concepts, but none of them are
affiliated with Musk or his companies.)
In 2013, the co-inventor of the
Superconducting Maglev transportation
system (which propels trains at high speeds
using magnets to create lift and propulsion)
told Live Science that there are limitations to
the Hyperloop concept.
"It's doable, but
you have to build
a track or tunnel
that's very
straight,"
American
physicist James
Powell told Live
Science at the
time . "At that
speed, the track
has to be straight
and flat, to avoid
bumpiness. When
you're going 600
miles per hour,
you can't really go
around curves,
and you'd have to
be very flat,
because without causing excessive g-forces,
you probably wouldn't be able to adjust to
changing elevations rapidly."
Yesterday, Hyperloop One also announced
that it had received $80 million in financing,
from current and new investors, to develop
the transportation system.
"The brightest minds are coming together at
the right time to eliminate the distances and
borders that separate economies and
cultures," Shervin Pishevar, Hyperloop One
co-founder and executive chairman, said in a
statement.
Hyperloop One further announced several
privately funded feasibility studies. One will
be for container shipments between the
California ports of Long Beach and Los
Angeles; another is within Switzerland; and
the third will investigate possible routing
between Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki,
Finland, the company said. Hyperloop One
will accept competitive proposals up to Sept.
15, and the winning proposals will be
selected in March 2017, company officials
said.
In 2015, Musk signed a deal with central
California landowners to build a 5-mile (8
km) test track along California Interstate 5.
This summer, SpaceX plans to test some of
the most promising Hyperloop prototypes at
its own track in Hawthorne, California.
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