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A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team has placed first in the design phase of SpaceX's Hyperloop competition. 115 teams submitted designs, and 22 teams will be able to test their designs on a 1.5 km test track during the summer:
Designs for passenger pods that could travel through airless tubes have been revealed by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Hyperloop is a conceptual transport system in which passenger pods could be fired through vacuum tubes at more than 600mph (1,000km/h). The MIT team came first in a SpaceX competition to design pods that could be tested in a prototype tube. The team will now have the opportunity to build and test its design in the US.
Elon Musk - the entrepreneur behind companies such as Paypal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors - announced his vision for a Hyperloop transport system in August 2013. Although SpaceX is not developing its own commercial Hyperloop, the company says it wants to "accelerate development" of the idea and is building a mile-long test track in California. The winning entries in the company's design competition will now have the opportunity to test them in full-scale tubes over the summer.
Previously:
SpaceX will hold a Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2016
Three Tracks Planned to Test 'Hyperloop' Transportation Idea
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday February 05 2016, @02:17PM
Why not push the vehicles along with air, rather than go to the trouble of maintaining a vacuum?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05 2016, @02:57PM
Air resistance
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday February 05 2016, @10:20PM
Exactly. The drag for objects traveling that fast is immense. Reducing the air pressure is best way to reduce the drag and save energy. At the same time some air is useful because they can shape the vehicle in a way to use the air to create lift, thus removing the need to levitate the vehicle in addition to moving it along the track. The list doesn't have to be much, in fact it should only be few inches to ensure the wheels are not in contact with the surface, but not enough for it to bump itself against the ceiling of the tube.
It is a genius design, just not one genius. Such a design has been thought of through-out history, we just didn't have the capability to really try it till now.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 05 2016, @03:02PM
The whooooosh is bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop#Theory_and_operation [wikipedia.org]
It's best described as a semi-vacuum, because there is still some air pressure. It would also work well on Mars, due to the low density of Mars's atmosphere.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday February 05 2016, @03:18PM
Were you envisioning a particular way of doing so? Pumping air in at the station to push the car all the way to the destination, like them old-timey message tubes? (or like the escape route in The Living Daylights)
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05 2016, @03:39PM
"Old-timey"?? Don't you mean futuristic [theinfosphere.org]?
(Score: 1) by YeaWhatevs on Friday February 05 2016, @04:01PM
Yea that's pretty much it. Don't forget it draws air from the other side too, but only enough so that you can use it as controlled air brakes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wonkey_monkey on Friday February 05 2016, @04:17PM
I guess (uninformedly) that the main objection to a plan like that is that you're going to waste a lot of energy compressing and moving air, when the kinetic energy of the car could be increased by much more direct means.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @02:48AM
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pneumatic_Dispatch_-_Figure_7.png [wikimedia.org]
(Score: 1) by linkdude64 on Friday February 05 2016, @04:12PM
Easy fix. If they're using a vacuum just move the hose to the exhaust port and it should blow them just fine.
(posting with no karma bonus for this one)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 05 2016, @08:37PM
(waits for someone to run some sizing calcs for required compressor power)
Suggest using 1000kg for the capsule/car mass so it is large enough to carry some people, along with the life support required to keep the people breathing and otherwise comfortable inside the evacuated tube.