Inventor Elon Musk is known for wild ideas. But he makes them happen. He started his own rocket company. He designs electric cars. He funds solar energy companies. So when Musk announced he wanted to shake up the transportation world again, lots of people listened. Now a contest seeks to make his travel idea a reality.
Musk’s idea is called Hyperloop. Musk invented the Hyperloop as a high-speed ground transport system. If it’s built, the Hyperloop will work by using vacuum power. (Think of those little tubes at drive-through banks.)
The Hyperloop will transport "pods" of 20 to 30 people through a 12-foot diameter tube. The machine will move pods of people at high speed—roughly 700 miles per hour.
The plan is that some day the first Hyperloop will travel about 336 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Travelers will be able to ride between the two cities in 35 minutes or less. That’s faster than flying.
Not only is the Hyperloop designed to be fast, but it is also designed to be cheap. Musk hopes it will be less costly than flying or train travel.
Sound wacky? SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and spacecraft company, wants to push the invention along. It sponsored a competition. The first part of the contest allowed students and engineering teams to design Hyperloop pods.
This winter, more than 100 university teams presented concepts to a panel of judges. The top teams were chosen to build their pods. This summer, they will test them at the world's first Hyperloop Test Track, being built near SpaceX's California headquarters.
A design by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate student engineers won the contest. The 25-member team made the design practical and safe. It is adaptable in size too. Later team members can build a working pod quickly. Then they can make it big enough to carry people.
Once built, MIT’s pod will be made of aluminum, carbon fiber, and polycarbonate. It will probably weigh 550 pounds. Magnets will cause the pod to float over the track. Wheels will help it start and stop.
Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands finished second, and the University of Wisconsin third.
Now these teams (and several others) must put their ideas to work. They will build their pods and race them. May the best pod win!
