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Elon Musk is without a doubt one of the most exciting future-gazing technology-makers of the moment. He's working on making domestic space travel a reality with his project, and he's making electric cars cool with, while with he's looking to get brain-computer interfaces implanted into all of our brains to supplement human intelligence with digital developments.
Seriously.So when he published a on transport (seemingly fuelled by rage against the rail system being developed for Los Angeles), the engineering world took notice. The paper was about a ‘new’ method of transportation called Hyperloop, which would make terrestrial human transportation at more than 760 miles per hour possible.The Hyperloop would manage this feat by transporting us in pods through depressurised tubes, rather like the pneumatic tubes used for transporting mail. Now, this technology obviously isn’t new, and Musk is the first to admit this. In his paper he references the work done by the Rand Corporation and ET3.The is pretty fascinating, as it was published in 1972, and already refers to this technology as pre-existing. In fact, the idea of passengers being transported using pressure in a tube had been floated as early as 1812. So the idea of 'electromagnetically levitated and propelled cars in an evacuated tunnel' has been around for a long time. So why does it only seem to be getting taken seriously now?Here we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about the Hyperloop, including how it works theoretically, whether it actually does work, who’s building it, and, more importantly, when you’ll be able to ride one.
Hyperloop: what the tube?So, it’s 2012, and Elon Musk starts talking about a 'fifth mode of transport', the idea that would eventually become Hyperloop. That fifth comes after cars, boats, trains, and planes.A year later he publishes a white paper full of ideas about the future of a mode of transport that uses magnetic levitation in a low-pressure tube. What’s quite revolutionary about this move is that he doesn’t seem to hold a single card close to his chest.The paper is full of schematics and workings. It starts with a very plain-English opening that's easy to read even if you have no background in technology or engineering.
The paper even encourages others to take the lead: “The authors encourage all members of the community to contribute to the Hyperloop design process.”This heralds the start of the open sourcing of the Hyperloop project. The nature of who actually owns/runs/works on Hyperloop is interesting (to say the least), but more about that in a little bit.
Hyperloop: how does it work?The basic principle outlined in Musk’s paper is that the ‘pods’ would levitate using magnetic levitation, or maglev, a technique that uses magnets to ‘float’ the pods and propel them through the tube.This propulsion raises a couple of issues. First, when you get up to the speeds that would be required in order for Hyperloop to compete with other high-speed transport modes, the air friction in the tunnel would become so great that the heat would damage the pods – and presumably the passengers inside them. Also, the pressure that would build up in front of the vessel would cause the tunnel to rupture.A digital rendering of solar panels atop Hyperloop tubes from Musk's white paperThis problem is solved by making the tunnel a vacuum – but if you have a tunnel that stretches for hundreds of miles, a single rupture would instantly compromise the vacuum and cause the system to fail.
This means the best solution is to massively reduce the pressure, but not make the tunnel an actual vacuum.But the fact that there is pressure in the tube brings back the second issue above; the faster the pod moves, the greater the pressure build-up ahead of it. Image squeezing a tube of toothpaste with the cap still on.The proposed solution to this is that the front of the pod will have a fan that pushes the air beneath and behind the vessel, which would have the additional benefit of aiding its levitation by creating an air buffer, similar to the technique used in air hockey to levitate the puck.A schematic of the proposed air bearings from Musk's white paperTurning corners is an interesting issue too, as when you a mode of transport that travels at speeds close to 1,000mph, turning corners creates massive G-forces.
For this reason, the tunnels would need to be straight for most of their length.In Musk’s paper, he imagines that these tubes would be above ground, and sit on pylons, so would take up a similar amount of ground space as a phone pylon. However there now seems to be a plan to use underground tunnels, dug by Musk’s wittily titled.Going underground does solve the issue of having to have the real-estate above ground, but raises another issue in terms of obtaining the energy to power the system, as in the original white paper part of the plan for powering Hyperloop was to have solar panels that sit on top of the tubes.And that part of the plan is particularly interesting, as if the sums are right Hyperloop could actually end up creating more energy than it uses. Hyperloop: who's making it?This is where things get interesting, as for most of its existence Hyperloop’s development has been powered by startups. After publishing the white paper, Musk handed over the responsibility by challenging startups to see who could actually bring the technology to market.The important thing to remember, which admittedly is a little tricky, is that Hyperloop is effectively the name of the product, not the company.
Most of the companies have Hyperloop in the title, but there isn't a company that is Hyperloop.Richard Branson (mogul of the Virgin empire), on investing in Hyperloop One changed its name, saying: 'Delighted to announce Virgin Group’s investment in Hyperloop One – the world’s most revolutionary train service. This is an incredibly innovative and exciting new way to move people and things at airline speeds on the ground. At the same time we have also agreed to rebrand the company as Virgin Hyperloop One.' Calling it a train service sounds a bit strange, but given that Branson has had success with Virgin Trains and Virgin Airlines, it makes sense for him to reference those modes of transport. Since that time, Branson has hinted that the company may drop the Hyperloop name, which we take to be an indication that Virgin thinks it's a strong enough proposition without Musk's hype attached to it.Hyperloop One's first prototype pod before VirginThe two main contenders at the moment are, and, with Musk throwing his own hat in the ring too, although there's no official Hyperloop company from Musk yet. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has come at the problem from a slightly different angle.It was founded by Dick Ahlborn and Bibop Gresta (because apparently everyone who works on the Hyperloop has an amazing name), who issued an interesting call to action. They proposed a crowd-sourcing approach, whereby anyone who worked on the Hyperloop project would get one unit of stock for every hour worked.That isn’t the end of HTT’s interesting approach to pay.
It claims that its Hyperloop technology will be so energy efficient that it will create energy that it will be able to sell. That profit would then be passed on to the user, making Hyperloop free to use.A digital rendering of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies's proposed testing facilityMixing things up further, Elon Musk himself that his The Boring Company will also be entering the fray. Interestingly, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is also setting its sights on the Middle East for its first working vehicle. It has announced that the world’s first working Hyperloop will be in Abu Dhabi. Of course, that claim is dependent on no other company getting there first.And there’s a very real possibility that, if another company does pip it to the post, Musk himself could be at the helm.Asked about Musk’s announcement that it would be making a Hyperloop, a spokesperson for The Boring Company said: “Musk said at the time he published the white paper that he would only seek to commercialize hyperloop if after a few years other companies were not moving quickly enough. While we’re encouraged that others are making some progress, we would like to accelerate the development of this technology as fast as possible.”Musk's own testing facilities are hotting up, with the big man himself tweeting that is hoping to get up to speeds of half the speed of sound, then stop again in just over one kilometer.
Although he did also tweet that it could end in 'shredded metal'.Another thing that lends credence to Musk's own Hyperloop efforts are some more tweets (yes he tweets a lot) that came off the back of the announcement of Loop's LA tunnel. In the tweets, he says the plan is to start an LA to San Franciso tunnel in 2019 that would be 'true Hyperloop'.That's encouraging news if you really can't wait to hurtle through a tube at close to the speed of sound. We'll be keeping this page updated with all the latest information about the Hyperloop as and when we get it, so keep checking back here. Want to know more about the future of transportation? Check out Jon Porter's regular column.
India is officially getting serious about the hyperloop.Yesterday (July 31), the Maharashtra government gave the final nod for constructing a hyperloop between India’s financial capital Mumbai and Pune, which is 200 kilometres away. The authorities have tagged it a “public infrastructure” project much like roads, bridges, and railways, setting it up to be the first hyperloop project in the world, the makers claim.A hyperloop is an ultra-high-speed ground transportation system akin to bullet trains. The Mumbai-Pune hyperloop is expected to slash the 3.5 hour travel time between the two cities to 35 minutes, according to the press release.“This is history in the making. The race is on to host the first hyperloop transportation system in the world, and today’s announcement puts India firmly in the lead,” said Jay Walder, CEO of the American transport tech firm Virgin Hyperloop One, which will be constructing the route between Mumbai and Pune. “This is a significant milestone and the first of many important steps toward bringing hyperloop to the masses.”Already, there are around 75 million passenger journeys between Mumbai and Pune annually. By 2026, this figure is expected to skyrocket to 130 million. The transport system aims to annually, along with ferrying lightweight cargo units between Mumbai port and Pune.
Coming soonThe hyperloop, brought into the limelight by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in, involves a magnetically-propelled capsule that carries passengers or cargo through a low-pressure tube at over 1,000 kilometres per hour.