The Hyperloop will change the future of transportation
Elon Musk has a long list of credentials. The inventor, entrepreneur, investor and scientist is the cofounder of PayPal, and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.He is also the guy behind the bright idea of the Hyperloop high-speed transportation system.The Hyperloop is without a doubt one of the most ambitious transportation ideas around and will be able to transport passengers faster than a bullet train.The Hyperloop is made up of aluminum pods that will shoot through steel tubes elevated off the ground.It will reach a top speed of 760 miles per hour, and will reportedly get you from San Fran to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. The steel tubes the pods travel through will be covered in solar panels to power the Hyperloop.The Hyperloop is estimated to cost between $6 billion and $10 billion, a fraction of the $70 billion high-speed rail proposal. But the Hyperloop will definitely face issues around the acquisition of around 900 miles land to build the track on.Back in 2013, Elon released his plans and design in a 57-page white paper and encouraged engineers and startup business to have a crack at it.While he’s ruled out building the Hyperloop himself, as he’s too busy with Tesla and SpaceX, he has revealed he is tempted to at least make a prototype.Since releasing his plans for the Hyperloop, several companies have jumped on board with the idea and started designing and constructing their own versions.Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is one of those businesses, founded by JumpStartFund, a crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing startup. They’ve assembled 400 engineers and experts to work on the Hyperloop design.Their talented team has been sourced from the likes of Nasa, SpaceX and Boeing, and is trading their time on the project for stock packages in the company.They plan to have a full-scale Hyperloop ready in 2016. They also plan to construct pods for shipping cargo as well – meaning more efficient shipping around the country.Companies such as Oerlikon, ACOM and Hodgetts and Fung have also signed on, providing infrastructure and technological support to Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.The SpaceX website states that neither they, nor CEO Elon Musk, are affiliated with any Hyperloop companies, but they are eager to assist in developing a prototype.SpaceX has since launced a competition for independent engineers and university students to design and build the best Hyperloop pod.The teams will be able to test out their pods on a yet to be built test track during a competition weekend likely to be in June next year.The competition has already had 700 entries in the first week of registrations being open, so there are sure to be some amazing entries that have the potential to change to future of transportation.