http://www.sciencemag.org/news/sifter/musk-s-hyperloop-does-100-miles-second-bailing
At a remote test facility north of Las Vegas, Nevada, a metal sled accelerated on rails at 186 kilometers per hour along a 0.8-kilometer track before hitting a patch of sand in the first demonstration of the mysterious hyperloop, a futuristic transportation system that would use magnetic levitation to send people in capsules through tubes at speeds averaging 966 kilometers per hour, The Wall Street Journal reports. Proposed 4 years ago by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the hyperloop still has many hurdles to jump before the technology—and the system itself—is feasible for passenger transport. But the company that ran today's test—Hyperloop One Inc.—plans a full demonstration by the end of this year and a fully functional commercial system by 2020.
Update, 12 May, 10:30 a.m.: The story has been updated to reflect that the maximum speed of the sled was 186 kilometers per hour, not 160 kilometers per second as originally reported.
http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...op-dream-is-about-to-have-its-1st-public-demo
Tech startup Hyperloop One is trying to build a new mode of transportation that would involve pods moving at very high speeds through a tube.
Updated at 3 p.m. ET.
Out in the Nevada desert today, the world got a good look at the first public test of the Hyperloop — a concept that could someday become a new mode of transportation.
Don't call it a Wright Brothers' "Kitty Hawk" moment just yet, though. The demo focused on only one piece of a very complicated system.
The Hyperloop, envisioned by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, would move passenger-filled pods through special tubes at incredibly high speeds — as in possibly crossing the 400 miles between San Francisco and Los Angeles in a mere 30 minutes. Musk offered up his ideas in 2013, and others got to work trying to build it.
One of the startups that jumped at the challenge is Hyperloop One, formerly Hyperloop Technologies, tested its propulsion mechanism today.
The Wall Street Journal wrote earlier in the day:
"The focus of the test will be more on the propulsion technology — whether it can actually move the sled — than the speed. The track is shorter and there will be air resistance, two slowing factors which will be eliminated in future tests."
On Tuesday, Hyperloop One announced new funding and new partners in transportation and engineering. One of those partners is Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. Gizmodo says that Ingels, known for big public infrastructure projects, "will give some much-needed design direction for how Hyperloop One's projects might start to integrate with the cities they're meant to serve." Gizmodo also has this statement from the architect:
"With hyperloop we are not only designing a futuristic station or a very fast train, we are dealing with an entirely novel technology with the potential to completely transform how our existing cities will grow and evolve, and how new cities will be conceived and constructed."
Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd said in a statement that the company would work with these new partners "to redefine the future of transportation, providing a more immediate, safe, efficient and sustainable high-speed backbone for the movement of people and things."
So will any of this actually work? NPR's Elise Hu asked the question when Musk announced his idea almost three years ago. Electrical engineer Marc Thompson told her it seemed that it would. But that's not the end of the story, said the Worcester Polytechnic professor: "The devil's in the details in terms of testing, safety, passenger safety, egress, vibration, all that engineering stuff."
Former U.S. Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Emil Frankel also had reservations, which he shared with Elise at the time.
"To talk about these kinds of leapfrogging technology in a context when we can't really adequately maintain our existing infrastructure is really not terribly realistic. At least not in terms of the public policy debate," Frankel said.
Hyperloop One and competitor Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, or HTT, don't seem deterred. HTT is making progress, too, Wired notes:
"We think we will be able to demonstrate full Kitty Hawk capabilities by the end of this year."
At a remote test facility north of Las Vegas, Nevada, a metal sled accelerated on rails at 186 kilometers per hour along a 0.8-kilometer track before hitting a patch of sand in the first demonstration of the mysterious hyperloop, a futuristic transportation system that would use magnetic levitation to send people in capsules through tubes at speeds averaging 966 kilometers per hour, The Wall Street Journal reports. Proposed 4 years ago by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the hyperloop still has many hurdles to jump before the technology—and the system itself—is feasible for passenger transport. But the company that ran today's test—Hyperloop One Inc.—plans a full demonstration by the end of this year and a fully functional commercial system by 2020.
Update, 12 May, 10:30 a.m.: The story has been updated to reflect that the maximum speed of the sled was 186 kilometers per hour, not 160 kilometers per second as originally reported.
http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...op-dream-is-about-to-have-its-1st-public-demo
Tech startup Hyperloop One is trying to build a new mode of transportation that would involve pods moving at very high speeds through a tube.
Updated at 3 p.m. ET.
Out in the Nevada desert today, the world got a good look at the first public test of the Hyperloop — a concept that could someday become a new mode of transportation.
Don't call it a Wright Brothers' "Kitty Hawk" moment just yet, though. The demo focused on only one piece of a very complicated system.
The Hyperloop, envisioned by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, would move passenger-filled pods through special tubes at incredibly high speeds — as in possibly crossing the 400 miles between San Francisco and Los Angeles in a mere 30 minutes. Musk offered up his ideas in 2013, and others got to work trying to build it.
One of the startups that jumped at the challenge is Hyperloop One, formerly Hyperloop Technologies, tested its propulsion mechanism today.
The Wall Street Journal wrote earlier in the day:
"The focus of the test will be more on the propulsion technology — whether it can actually move the sled — than the speed. The track is shorter and there will be air resistance, two slowing factors which will be eliminated in future tests."
On Tuesday, Hyperloop One announced new funding and new partners in transportation and engineering. One of those partners is Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. Gizmodo says that Ingels, known for big public infrastructure projects, "will give some much-needed design direction for how Hyperloop One's projects might start to integrate with the cities they're meant to serve." Gizmodo also has this statement from the architect:
"With hyperloop we are not only designing a futuristic station or a very fast train, we are dealing with an entirely novel technology with the potential to completely transform how our existing cities will grow and evolve, and how new cities will be conceived and constructed."
Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd said in a statement that the company would work with these new partners "to redefine the future of transportation, providing a more immediate, safe, efficient and sustainable high-speed backbone for the movement of people and things."
So will any of this actually work? NPR's Elise Hu asked the question when Musk announced his idea almost three years ago. Electrical engineer Marc Thompson told her it seemed that it would. But that's not the end of the story, said the Worcester Polytechnic professor: "The devil's in the details in terms of testing, safety, passenger safety, egress, vibration, all that engineering stuff."
Former U.S. Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Emil Frankel also had reservations, which he shared with Elise at the time.
"To talk about these kinds of leapfrogging technology in a context when we can't really adequately maintain our existing infrastructure is really not terribly realistic. At least not in terms of the public policy debate," Frankel said.
Hyperloop One and competitor Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, or HTT, don't seem deterred. HTT is making progress, too, Wired notes:
"We think we will be able to demonstrate full Kitty Hawk capabilities by the end of this year."
