Design a supersonic process rolling to 1 300 km / h: this is the new challenge of crazy Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. Unveiled in August 2013, the project now mobilizes a large team of engineers to start developing prototypes in 2015.
Go from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes in a small train propelled very high speed in a low-pressure tube: Here one of the possibilities that could offer the Hyperloop, a conveyance designed by Elon Musk. In August 2013, the head of Tesla and SpaceX published a white paper detailing the 57 pages of the most futuristic project, not adding however have time to tackle it himself. He therefore appealed to companies wishing to begin the development of this new means of transport, in order to pass “ from concept to reality .”
100 engineers on the project
An appeal heard by Dick Ahlborn, CEO of JumpStartFund, a company combining crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to support project development. A team of 100 engineers and students has been made to work on the ambitious vision of Elon Musk. Dick Ahlborn offered its initiative to SpaceX and the company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) has emerged. His goal: to transform the concept of Hyperloop in commercially viable project by 10 years
talents working on the project are not full-time. Much working in companies like SpaceX, Boeing, Airbus or to NASA. The 25 students who belong are members of the program design and architecture Suprastudio at the University of California Los Angeles based. A dream team that has already many challenges to hope to break ground this ambitious and very expensive projects – the only segment Los Angeles / San Francisco, two cities separated by 640 km away, would cost between 6 and $ 10 billion.
How does it work?
One could describe the vision of Elon Musk as an evolution of transport pneumatic tube system that allowed in the 1800 to carry telegrams and other correspondence in pressurized pipes for several hundred meters. Hyperloop consist of two large low pressure tubes, supported by pylons for the straightest possible path.
Inside the shuttle mounted on a variety of ski manufactured using Inconel A super alloy used by SpaceX as resistant to pressure and intense heat. An air bag system and electromagnetism also would be appropriate to allow the modules to levitate in the tube. The thrust and braking would be provided by electric turbochargers.
But the vision of the boss asks many adjustments SpaceX says Ahlborn Dick and his team. Some problems have already found solution, especially on the side of the design of the shuttle. The system of “levitation” of the past is one of the areas for improvement.
The development of Hyperloop the United States is on track, but it will take time for HTT find the funds needed to set starts such a prototype. However, for Dick Ahlborn, it could be a formality, as far as the design of such means of transport could revolutionize the market and the way people move. Besides the prices would be affordable: we talk about $ 20 for Los Angeles – San Francisco, faster and cheaper than the same trip by plane. See you in 10 years?
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