Elon Musk Reveals Hyperloop Transport System Concept Design

A quick introduction about Elon Musk to those who might not know him. Musk is a American billionaire and a seasoned entrepreneur who is well known as the co-founder of PayPal, the man behind SpaceX, the space transport startup and Tesla, the very successful electric car manufacturing company.

Hyperloop, a hyperfast public transport system, is his baby. This futuristic public transport system has been envisioned by Musk as an addition to existing forms of transport, namely planes, trains, cars and boats. After first revealing his Hyperloop concept a couple of months back, Musk has now revealed detailed designs and plans about his fifth mode of transport.

Hyperloop Public Transport System

Musk first proposed Hyperloop as an alternate to the high speed rail which will come up to connect the extremely busy route between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Musk says Hyperloop will cost only $6 billion, as against the $68 billion which the high speed rail system is expected to cost.

Hyperloop Alpha design revealed by Elon Musk via a tweet.

Hyperloop Public Transport System

Distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles is 613.9 km.
Travel time by air: 1h 15 min
By road: 5h 30min
By the approved high speed rail: 2h 40min
Hyperloop: 30 min (claimed)

Hyperloop Public Transport System

Musk believes, if a new transportation system is being set up it should not look back, but think forward. Such a system should be "Safer, Faster, Lower cost, More convenient, Immune to weather, Sustainably self-powering, Resistant to Earthquakes, [and should] Not [be] disruptive to those along the route"

Hyperloop Public Transport System

The basic idea is the enclose passengers (28 at a time) in capsules, riding on a cushion of air and magnetically propel them through a low pressure steel tube at nearly 1300 km/h. The tube would be "mounted on columns 50 to 100 yards apart."

Hyperloop Public Transport System

Each pod would be 5 miles apart, which would allow 70 pods to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each separated by a 30 second gap. Hyperloop is also expected to be solar powered.

Hyperloop Public Transport System

Musk says, Hyperloop could transport 7.4 million people in a year and the project would take approximately 7 to 10 years to complete. However, Hyperloop is not at the top of Musk's priority list. He says he might get the project started, but it would have to be carried forward by others. The designs and ideas have thus been made public by Musk.

Hyperloop Public Transport System

What's more, you can even send your own ideas to help improve the Hyperloop concept. Here are the contact details if you are interested.

[email protected] or [email protected].

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Article Published On: Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 13:38 [IST]
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