Elon Musk's 'Hyperloop' Idea One Step Closer To Reality
Elon Musk's hyperloop idea could be ready for passengers in as few as 10 years, as a team of 100 engineers unite to make this a reality. Hyperloop is a conceptual high-speed transportation system (faster than an airplane) popularized by Musk.
The idea involves incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on a cushion of air that is driven by a combination of linear induction motors and air compressors.
The task of turning this revolutionary idea into a reality has been taken up by a startup called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies who laid out the plans in the form of 76-page report. If the idea is actually implemented, it could cut travel time between Los Angeles and San Francisco down to 35 minutes, which generally takes 12 hours by Amtrak train, and more than six hours by car.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is housed within a newly-launched crowd-funding company called JumpStartFund. The company estimates the cost of the project anywhere between $7 billion and $19 billion.
"We would love to see LA to San Francisco, but our primary goal is to build the Hyperloop," said Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of JumpStartFund.
According to the report released by HTT, the system would carry passengers in pods moving as fast as 800 miles per hour.
The team is currently composed of more than 100 engineers and experts, most of whom have full time jobs at companies such as NASA, SpaceX, Airbus and Boeing. Part of the team is also a group of 25 students from UCLA's SupraStudio design and architecture program, who will take care of the Hyperloop transit system design.
"We're working very close with the public and being very transparent," said Ahlborn.
"For us, it's mostly about building the Hyperloop," he added. "We want to see it in the U.S., but if it makes more sense to do that somewhere else, then so be it. The goal is to build it."
