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Hyperloop One's Passenger Pod Takes its First Ride

posted by martyb on Thursday August 03 2017, @10:23AM   
from the just-wait-until-Apple-supplies-an-iPod dept.

We had submissions from two Soylentils on a recent high-speed demonstration by Hyperloop One.

Hyperloop One's Passenger Pod Takes its First Ride

Fnord666 writes:

Just weeks after Hyperloop One demonstrated a working, albeit slow, version of its levitating sled, the company has made another leap forward. This time around, the startup has successfully tested its XP-1 passenger pod, reaching speeds of up to 192 mph and levitating off the track as it accelerated.

XP-1 traveled for just over 300 meters before the brakes kicked in and it rolled to a gradual stop, hitting a top speed of 192 mph. That speed puts Hyperloop One's system a little bit ahead of Category 1 high-speed rail, which has a maximum running speed of 155mph, although it's not yet faster than Japan's bullet train.

Then again, Hyperloop One's plan is to push its pods at speeds closer to 750 mph, but that's clearly going to be tough to test in a tube that's just 500 meters long. But the milestones, slow and steady, are being met, and it's clearly a demonstration of the company's strength that it is developing its prototypes for real.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/02/hyperloop-one-first-pod-xp1-test/

Hyperloop One Claims Successful 192mph Test

takyon writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/hyperloop-one-says-it-sent-a-demo-pod-down-its-test-track/

For the number nuts, such as himself, your humble editor (FP), in a freshly woken daze - and assuming 300 m of acceleration, 50 m of gliding, and 150 m of deceleration - has calculated that the acceleration was at 2.5G, and the deceleration was at 5.0G, which doesn't make breakfast seem such a good idea.
[NB: That contains a factor of 2 error, as pointed out below by a careful reader, my bad -- FP.]

Today Hyperloop One claimed that its demo pod reached 192mph (310 kph) on the 500m (1/3 mile) test track that the startup built outside of Las Vegas. Hyperloop One showed off that demo pod last month—it's basically an 8.7m (28.5 ft) carbon-fiber shell on a magnetically levitating chassis.

This test run follows on a "Phase 1" test that sent a bare-bones sled down the test track at 70mph. At the time, Hyperloop One had said Phase 2 would involve getting to 250mph, but in a recent press release, the startup said that the 192mph test run this month satisfied Phase 2 development goals. Ars has reached out to Hyperloop One for clarification, and we'll update when we receive a response.

Although no media were present, Hyperloop One claims that in this most recent test, its large pod "accelerated for 300 meters and glided above the track using magnetic levitation before braking and coming to a gradual stop."

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Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

• Acceleration and deceleration Acceleration and deceleration (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:39PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:39PM (#548315)

  I do not know how "your humble editor" got his/her acceleration numbers, but I guess there was a divide by 2 missing in his/her calculations. With the same assumptions, I get a constant acceleration of 1.25g and a constant deceleration of -2.66g. Here is my Matlab/Octave code for those who want to cross-check:

  % Everything in SI units (metres, seconds)
  l_Pod = 8.7;
  l = 500 - l_Pod;
  v_max = 192*1.609344*1e3*60^(-2);
  
  l_accel = 300;
  l_brake = l - l_accel - 50;
  
  g = 9.81;
  
  a_accel = v_max^2/l_accel/2;
  a_decel = -v_max^2/l_brake/2;
  
  g_accel = a_accel/g
  g_decel = a_decel/g

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+1
  Touché=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Touché' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		1

• Re:Acceleration and deceleration Re:Acceleration and deceleration (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 03 2017, @10:34PM (1 child)

  by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday August 03 2017, @10:34PM (#548510) Homepage

  Good catch, thank you. Indeed I'd confused the /2 in the equation with the /2 ratio between the deceleration and acceleration, and forgot to do another one, and thought I was finished. In my defence, I had just woken up, and the editorial queue was flashing bright red.
  
  However, I would note that I still don't consider -2.66g to be "coming to a gradual stop", which was my perhaps not well-enough expressed point. I'd call that "I hope there's a 5-point harness".

  --
  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

  Parent

  • Re:Acceleration and deceleration (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday August 04 2017, @07:25PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday August 04 2017, @07:25PM (#548839)

    I would note that I still don't consider -2.66g to be "coming to a gradual stop"

    The test track is only 500m long, there's no humans on board, and the goal was to achieve a high top speed (192mph) in that very short space, so of course the braking force will be very high. On a real system, they're not going to do that.

    Parent