Preparations for travel through vacuum-sealed tubes via pods propelled by magnetic levitation may begin in just a few weeks' time. This ambitious project by Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is the $6 Billion vision of Elon Musk, who is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, and chief executive of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA). He also chairs SolarCity. Hyperloop, as the enterprise is nicknamed, was initially proposed by Musk in 2013.
Hyperloop is an almost frictionless transport system where passenger-bearing pods will travel through a sealed tube at the speed of sound. The prototype of this bullet train will run on a five-mile track between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has the capability to travel at 760 mph. This effectively translates to a transit of only 30 minutes between these two points.
In the Transport to the Future event in London, chief operation officer Bibop Gabriele Gresta relays Hyperloop will utilise renewable energy. The system will produce solar, wind, and kinetic power. This may well become a significant fixture in the transport of time-essential objects, including organs for transplants.
The US prototype will conduct actual passenger transport test at 160 mph and empty-carriage test at speeds that may go up to 780 mph. Once tests are perfected, permanent pods will be built on Hyperloop. This will have the capacity to carry 3,400 passengers per hour.
Swiss company Oerlikon, of the particle accelerators at CERN, will produce Hyperloop's vacuum pumps.
HTT plans for Hyperloop to go global. Reducing the London-Glasgow route into a 30-minute journey is among those eyed for this expansion. HTT reckons the cost to come between £3.9 and £5.2 Billion. Boeing, NASA, Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Airbus, SpaceX and Salesforce engineers and scientists are among those working on bringing Hyperloop to life.
HTT plans to use the track as income-generating billboard. This and sales of excess electricity are targetted to produce sufficient funds to reduce Hyperloop travel costs to less than travel via air, road or bus.
Musk's Tesla blog post cites Hyperloop to be the "safer, faster and lower cost" alternative to existing systems of transport that will be "immune to weather, sustainably self-powering, resistant to earthquakes and not disruptive to those along the route".
