Hyperloop  

A new video has been released by start-up, Hyperloop Technologies. The firm started by a former SpaceX engineer has just appointed a new CEO, and certainly looks like they are about to make Elon Musk's transportation idea a reality.

Hyperloop Technologies is aiming to build a two-mile test track at its LA campus by the end of 2016, or early 2017. The company just hired a new CEO, Rob Lloyd who was the former Cisco president of sales and development. Lloyd will take over for Brogan BamBrogan, who will now serve as the company's CTO.

Lloyd called the Hyperloop vision “compelling and disruptive” as well as “the most transformative new mode of transportation that the world has seen in decades.” He also announced that his team consists of more than 50 full-time employees across engineering, design, manufacturing, legal, and human resources.

"We have custom built a wind tunnel that allows us to do both single blade and cascade tests over a wide variety of speeds & pressures."

According to the press release about Lloyd's hiring, there are many different use cases for Hyperloop, and the company is already in talks with a variety of customers and partners on every continent about how to work together.

Some of the unique innovations that the team at Hyperloop Tech is working on include the following:

Compressor 

Each HyperPod has a compressor on its forward facing surface that takes in the air in front of it instead of displacing it. This significantly reduces the drag on the Pod as it travel through the tube. Hyerloop is developing this unique compressor technology to operate at the very high-speeds and low-pressures experienced during operation. "We have custom built a wind tunnel that allows us to do both single blade and cascade tests over a wide variety of speeds & pressures. This will also allow us to test scale models of the innovative HyperPod concepts," they claim.

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Levitation

To support the HyperPod and payload during operation, Hyperloop is baselining the use of air bearings. "We have built a Levitation Test Rig to evaluate a variety of air bearing configurations at surface speeds up to 740mph. We’re also looking at some intriguing alternatives to air bearings such as a passive magnetic levitation (maglev) design."

Propulsion

All electric linear motors are used to propel the HyperPods through the tube. The same motors are used to brake the pods during normal operation, allowing us to recapture much of the energy. "We are optimizing and innovating on the full system of elements required for our high speed propulsion system. These systems include: advanced energy storage, high-power drives & power electronics, high-speed controls, and our custom electromagnetic motor," states the press release.

Tube Manufacturing

"We are innovating heavily on the tube architecture, construction, and manufacturing process in an effort to build an extremely strong and cost effective tube structure which can be built and deployed hundreds of kilometers at a time."

Hyperloop could potentially make the trip from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes at promised speeds of close to 800 miles per hour.

SOURCE  The Verge

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 Hyperloop  

Another company has emerged from stealth with the goal of making Elon Musk's Hyperloop a reality.  Hyperloop Technologies is headed up by an all-star team of entrepreneurs, engineers and investors, and is looking to Hyperloop to revolutionize the future of cargo transportation.

Since Elon Musk teased the concept of the Hyperloop, there has been a lot of interest in the project.  When he opened sourced the concept to everyone, realizing that Tesla, SpaceX, and his other ventures would not permit him to develop the idea on his own, with a detailed 58-page white paper, Silicon Valley investors took notice too.

Now, in a feature article in Forbes, Hyperloop Technologies, an all-star group of entrepreneurs and investors, claims they can get the technology up and running in five years.

"We have the team, the tools and the technology. We can do this."

Starting with an $8.5 million pool of money and plans for an additional $80 million funding round later this year, the team of Shervin Pishevar, a major investor in Uber, Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir, Joe Messina, former White House deputy chief of staff, David Sacks, founder of Yammer, Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-prize, and Brogan BamBrogan, one of SpaceX’s key engineers, is poised to create the Hyperloop.

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BamBrogan is the interim CEO, CTO, Co-Founder of the start-up, which is recruiting mainly from SpaceX, the defense and energy sectors. “We have the team, the tools and the technology,” BamBrogan told Forbes. “We can do this.”

Hyperloop Technologies initial mission exceeds Musk’s original vision for the technology, first focusing on freight rather than human transportation. This high-speed “cargoloop” could go over land or under water. Container-loads of products could arrive overnight on such a system.

The company is not the only one trying to realize the Hyperloop, the similarly named, Hyperloop Transporation Technologies (HTT) was formed soon after Musk's announcement. Also despite claiming to not be involved in the development anymore, Musk announced plans to build a test Hyperloop track last month.


If built, the Hyperloop, would be as fast as a plane, cheaper than a train and continuously available in any weather while emitting no carbon from the tailpipe. It would theoretically allow people to get from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 20 minutes, or New York to Philadelphia in 10. Our very notion of cities might evolve with the technology, becoming metro stops.

Some have even suggested Hyperloop would cause borders to evaporate, along with housing price imbalances and overcrowding. If this is grandiose futurism, or reality remains to be seen.

Diamandis tells Forbes, "It’s time to stop doing photo apps and start doing something for the planet."


SOURCE  Forbes

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 Elon Musk  

SpaceX CEO/CTO, and Tesla Motors Chief Product Architect Elon Musk recently sat down and shared his visions of the future, from Mars colonization the the Hyperloop, to the threat of artificial intelligence.

From Tesla to SpaceX to artificial intelligence, Elon Musk recently sat down at MIT's AeroAstro Centenial Symposium and discussed these topics.

The session featuring entrepreneur, inventor, SpaceX CEO/CTO, and Tesla Motors Chief Product Architect Elon Musk. Musk shared his visions of aerospace’s future, and took questions from the audience.

"In terms of competitiveness, I think it mostly comes down to our pace of innovation—our pace of innovation is much, much faster than the big aerospace companies," states Musk on the company's competitive advantage. "That's generally true of innovation—when it's big companies versus small, the smaller [companies] are generally better at innovation ... Smaller companies would just die if they didn't try innovating."

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Musk was asked why he started SpaceX during the session.  It was not to have the company build a Mars colony, or to send the CEO to the planet, as some have suggested, but to get the interest in such a project back into the popular consciousness.

He states that humanity must decide whether it's going to be a single-planet species or a multi-planet species, Musk said. "Multi-planet will last a lot longer, propagate far longer" than would a humankind restricted to one planet. It's “planetary redundancy—backing up the biosphere. We've got all of our eggs in one basket here ... Some risks are extremely difficult to mitigate, and some we ultimately may not be able to mitigate ... The question is, should we [colonize Mars] now, or wait for some point in future. I think the wise moment is to do it now."

Musk is well known for promoting a worldwide goal of creating a self-sustaining civilization on Mars. A "mission" to Mars—for learning about the planet, getting photos, and so on—is "not the thing that fundamentally changes the future of humanity," Musk said. Though there are plenty of problems to deal with on Earth, there ought to be "some small amount [of resources] given over to the establishment of a colony on Mars—less than 1 percent of our resources. It's not as important as, say, healthcare. But it’s more important than, say, cosmetics."

"With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out."

A very interesting question Musk answers was about artificial intelligence.

"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with artificial intelligence," he says.

"I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out."

Humans have an "open window" for inter-planetary colonization for the first, and maybe the last, time in Earth's history. "We hope the window will be open forever, but it may also close. If you look at the history of technology, [such as in] ancient Egypt, they built incredible, giant pyramids, and then forgot how to build them ... There's clearly been a cycle with technology." Hopefully the current momentum of technology can continue upward indefinitely, Musk said, "but maybe it doesn’t. Maybe there’s some bad thing that happens. For 1 percent of our resources, we can buy life insurance for life collectively. And I think that would be a good thing to do."


SOURCE  MIT AeroAstro

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 Hyperloop  

Elon Musk's Hyperloop concept for futuristic travel has legs it would seem.  A new company has been founded to develop a working prototype of the open source project and it backed by serious engineering talent.

S ince entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled his Hyperloop concept and said he wanted to open source it's development, everyone has been wondering, "What's next?"  Now a group of early investors and engineers has come together under the name Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. and is aiming to launch a prototype by 2015.  

Technical advice, and leadership around the community interaction aspects of the project, will be led former SpaceX mission director Dr. Marco Villa and Dr. Patricia Galloway, the former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The administrative tasks of the project will be handled by interim CEO Dirk Ahlborn, who also serves as the CEO and founder of the JumpStartFund.

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A rough timetable for various milestones involving the development of the hyperloop system. First, a research paper offering specific technical details of the system will be released in March of 2014. That will be followed by a prototype design that will be presented for construction bidding in June of the same year.

“We have been contacted by several places that would like us to put the first prototype [in their location],” says Ahlborn, when asked about the project’s southern California roots and the location of the initial prototype network.

“It would be a valid alternative to the [upcoming] high-speed rail in California, but there are a lot of politics around the high-speed rail there. If the discussion later comes, we’ll be happy to do it in California. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be in California.



SOURCE  Mashable

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 Future of Transportation  

Today Elon Musk has revealed the plans for the Hyperloop, a so-called "fifth mode" of transportation "after planes, trains, cars and boats." As suspected it is form of tube transport system consisting of of a low pressure tube with capsules that are transported at both low and high speeds throughout the length of the tube.

A

mid an air of mystery and speculation, billionaire Elon Musk has revealed the plans for the Hyperloop, a so-called "fifth mode" of transportation "after planes, trains, cars and boats." 

The "Hyperloop Alpha," as Musk dubbed the first design, would be a solar-powered, elevated transit system capable of transporting people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in only 30 minutes, according to Musk's interview with Bloomberg Businessweek and a 57-page PDF explaining the Hyperloop on the website for Tesla.

Musk, a co-founder of PayPal and co-founder and current CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, has confirmed that he will not have the time to make the Hyperloop himself, but hopes others will take up the plans or offer improvements and feedback.
During a live conference call following the reveal however, Musk said he will "probably" build a Hyperloop prototype.

"Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome (someone please do this), the only option for super fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment," Musk wrote in his proposal, posted online.
According to Musk, the Hyperloop is best used when traveling between cities less than 1,000 miles apart that have considerable traffic on the ground. Travelers would also avoid the long wait times during check-ins, takeoffs and landings necessary for air travel.

Musk told Businessweek that he became inspired to think about re configuring public transit after becoming frustrated of the $70 billion construction of California's high speed rail system, set to begin this summer.

Citing slow speeds, inefficient costs and logistical nightmares involving land rights, Musk began work on the Hyperloop idea, claiming it can be four times faster than the train sytem -- nearly 800 miles per hour -- at one tenth of the cost.

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The Hyperloop would transport people through aluminum pods enclosed inside steel tubes. The tubes would be spaced 50 to 100 yards apart, with the pods able to transport both cars and people. To withstand high pressure and heat, the pods would be mounted on thin skis made of trusted Inconel steel.

From now on, Hyperloop is considered an open source transportation concept. The authors of the report encourage all members of the community to contribute to the Hyperloop design process. Iteration of the design by various individuals and groups can help bring  Hyperloop from an idea to a reality.

Going forward the need for additional work, includes but is not limited to: 

1. More expansion on the control mechanism for Hyperloop capsules, including attitude thruster or control moment gyros.
2. Detailed station designs with loading and unloading of both passenger and passenger plus vehicle versions of the Hyperloop capsules.
3. Trades comparing the costs and benefits of Hyperloop with more conventional magnetic levitation systems.
4. Sub-scale testing based on a further optimized design to demonstrate the physics of Hyperloop.

Feedback is welcomed on these or any useful aspects of the Hyperloop design. If you have any ideas, E-mail feedback to hyperloop@spacex.com or hyperloop@teslamotors.com.

Musk says he would support another person or organization that wanted to make the Hyperloop a reality.

“It is a question of finding the right person and team to get behind it,” Musk says. “Creating a prototype is not that expensive.” But if no one advances or acts on Musk’s ideas, he may come back to the Hyperloop in a few years’ time and pursue it as part of Tesla. “Down the road, I might fund or advise on a Hyperloop project, but right now I can’t take my eye off the ball at either SpaceX or Tesla.”


SOURCE  Bloomberg Businessweek

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 Future of Transportation  

With all of the rumors and buildup to the Hyperloop announcement from Elon Musk next week, designers at Go Compare have shared with us an infographic describing what the system might actually be.

Next Monday, entrepreneur Elon Musk is scheduled to release more information on the Hyperloop transport system.

In previous discussions, Musk has referred to the Hyperloop as as "a cross between Concorde and railgun." Hyperloop would allow commuters to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in a mere 30 minutes.

Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013

Related articles Elon Musk Discusses His Numerous Ventures  SpaceX's Grasshopper Rises and Lands 250m in Vertical Take-off and Landing Test  Elon Musk To Reveal Hyperloop Plans Next Month

There is a lot of speculation that the plans will be similar to the ET3 Transporation system that is currently in a funding and research stage.

Now there is chatter that the Hyperloop will be downplayed by Musk. While on a Tesla Motors investor call recently, Musk said, ”I think I shot myself in the foot by ever mentioning the Hyperloop. I’m too strung out.”

Musk is referring to the fact that he’s already the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and is understandably too busy to build a multi-billion-dollar transport link. Musk did say, however, that if no progress has been made by other people/companies in the next few years, he might try to “make it happen.”

Amid all of the rumors and buildup to the Hyperloop announcement, designers at Go Compare have shared with us an infographic describing what the system might be.

What do you think about the Hyperloop?  Let us know in the comments.

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Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013

 Future of Transportation  

With a Tweet yesterday, Elon Musk has stirred up a lot of excitement about his mysterious Hyperloop transport project.  He revealed that the plans will be open-sourced to accelerate development and that more details will be given next month.

Yesterday Space X and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk tweeted that his long-rumored Hyperloop project will be releasing data in August.

Musk later clarified that he does not plan to pursue a patent on the Hyperloop and "will publish Hyperloop as open source."

Musk has yet to confirm exactly what his design entails, but in the past he has described it as superior to bullet trains and capable of moving people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes on demand. This means no waiting around for scheduled trains. If you show up and there's no line, you just hop into a waiting pod of some sort and you are on your way.

Related articles Elon Musk Discusses His Numerous Ventures  SpaceX's Grasshopper Rises and Lands 250m in Vertical Take-off and Landing Test  Elon Musk: the Hyperloop Design Is Coming August 12

Musk also has said the system would be crash-proof and unaffected by weather, which points to some sort of underground or fully enclosed technology. He also has hinted that it's not a vacuum tube, describing it instead as a cross between a rail gun, Concorde, and air hockey table.

In July Musk commented that,

This system I have in mind, how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes three or four times faster than the bullet train... it goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There's a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries. Yes, this is possible, absolutely.

There is conjecture that the plans will be similar to the ET3 Transporation system that is currently in a funding and research stage.

Engineer John Gardi has also published what he thinks Hyperloop will be via Twitter:

What do you think Musk will reveal next month?

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