This Saturday, it was announced that a group of students of engineer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were named winners of a SpaceX competition to design a Hyperloop.
The Hyperloop concept was created by Elon Musk, co-founder of SpaceX, an american space transportation manufacturer and services company. The idea is that this transportation is able to take from 20 to 30 people through a 12-foot diamater tube at high speeds, while floating on air bearings and avoiding friction. Similar to the subway system but faster.
This project has been described by the same Musk as a “cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table”. Pods would float on a layer of air between 0.5 and 1.3mm thick, similar to a puck on a hockey table. They would be powered by electrified induction motors that would help them avoid friction and move at controlled speeds.
The event took place at Texas A&M University and more than 100 college student teams from 20 different countries participated in the competition. Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands got the second place, University of wisconsin finished third, Virginia Tech finished fourth and University of California finished fifith. These four teams, along with MIT winners, will build their pods and test them at the World’s first Hyperloop Test Track.
“World-changing events such as this do not happen often, so to be able to say one took place at Texas A&M is truly special,” said Michael K. Young, president of Texas A&M, as he encourage students to get inspired and continue creating and innovating. “This weekend’s competition proves the future is in very good hands with such an inspiring and talented group of young people,” he added.
SpaceX wants to build the first test track in Quay Valle in Callifornia, where winners will go test their pods and maybe it will be opened to the public in 2018. Musk is interested on building the first Hyperloop system between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and being able to transport people in an estimated time of just a half an hour, five hours less than driving a car.
Sources: International Business Times