Imagine it’s the year 2018, and your mind’s caught looping in a vicious circle between making three meetings, with the second one in Los Angeles, and the first and third in San Francisco. There’s no way you can make them all in your flying car because of a traffic jam, plus the plutonium shortage means you’ll have a net loss in your budget today. You would Skype via the heads-up hologram display in your glasses, but that second assistant of yours always seems to instill a kind of confusion at meeting’s end only reneged by your physical presence. But what if you could hyperloop between the cities in 30 minutes or less?
READING TOO MUCH ASIMOV?
No, hyperloop isn’t science fiction, and this isn’t Isaac Asimov. Elon Musk recently invested in the Hyperloop project, which plans to construct several circuits of low-pressure tubes, inside of which will travel bullet-shaped capsules. These capsules will ride a self-generated cushion of air as they are propelled forward by magnetic linear acceleration, becoming the most ecologically-savvy form of transportation to grace the west side, according to a recent report by Reuters.
THE MAN WITH THE PLAN
Speaking from Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Dirk Ahlborn described this new invention: “Well imagine a capsule filled with people that’s hovering inside the tube. Inside the tube you create a low pressure environment very similar to an airplane that’s at high altitudes. So now the capsule traveling inside the tubes doesn’t encounter as much [air] resistance, and so therefore can travel really fast with very little energy.”
HYPERLOOP MAY BENEFIT LOCAL ENVIRONS & COMMUNITIES
Among putative benefits to consumers and surrounding environs alike is the potential for hyperloop transit to be totally free, for the supporting concrete pylons to house bee hives, energy generators, gardens, et al to actually encourage local communities to celebrate the installation of new nearby pylons as a means for communion or trade.
Musk argues that Hyperloop would be a much better transportation system than the state’s concurrent plans for a high-speed rail system, e.g., hyperloop would be safer, faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
INITIAL TESTING AND COMPETITION
Space Exploration Technologies, i.e. SpaceX (the company currently launching supplies to the International Space Station), will construct a test track in California, and is already hosting a competition for prototype pods. We should keep in mind that neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk are directly affiliated with Hyperloop.
Hyperloop Technology will be completely solar powered, and is expected to break current speed records upon first tests. Such groundbreaking beginnings are sure to swell the confidence of investors and citizens affecting and effected by this project, alike.
