'Hyperloop' would link LA-SF in 30 mins, if built (& another longish bet)

[Dio]

I could be the devil's advocate . As a matter of fact, I will take your bet; even though I think it is unlikely. Now all my minions of stupidity will  .

[Buster's Uncle]

Okydoke.  It's a bet [virtual handshake].

[Buster's Uncle]

Hyperloop: Crowd-Sourced Company Plans Test Track in California
ABC News
By ALYSSA NEWCOMB  Feb 27, 2015, 10:59 AM ET



A rendering of a Hyperloop.  HTT/JumpStartFund



The first Hyperloop test track could be built as early as 2016 in California, moving Elon Musk's dream of a high-speed transportation system of tubes one step closer to becoming a reality.

Using Musk's free design plan, Hyperloop Test Technologies, a crowd-funded company not affiliated with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire, said it plans to build a full-scale model on five miles of land in California's Quay Valley.

"This installation will allow us to demonstrate all systems on a full scale and immediately begin generating revenues for our shareholders through actual operations," Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, said in a statement to The Verge.

Musk first unveiled his futuristic idea in 2013, calling it "a cross between a Concord, a rail gun and an air hockey table." He published the 57-page design plan on both Tesla Motors' and SpaceX's blogs as a PDF available for download, allowing anyone to take the design and adopt it.

While Musk described a system that could carry humans at speeds as high as 760 mph, the California test track will likely only reach around 200 mph, Ahlborn told The Verge.

The Hyperloop is a large pneumatic tube, similar to the system used by some hospitals to transport documents, samples and medications in a more efficient manner. New York City also relied on a network of pneumatic tubes to transport mail during the first half of the 20th century.

Last month, Musk tweeted that he plans to build a Hyperloop test track "most likely in Texas" where student teams and companies can test out designs for possible Hyperloop pods.


http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/hyperloop-crowd-sourced-company-plans-test-track-california/story?id=29270798

[Buster's Uncle]

Elon Musk’s hyperloop is actually getting kind of serious
Construction on a full-scale, passenger-ready Hyperloop to start in 2016.
by Alex Davies, wired.com - Aug 20, 2015 12:24pm EDT



Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced today that it has signed agreements to work with Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum and global engineering design firm Aecom, validation that it's a serious project.  Hyperloop Transportation Technologies
 


The hyperloop sounds like science fiction, Elon Musk’s pipe dream: leapfrog high-speed rail and go right to packing us into capsules that fling us across the country in hours using what are, essentially, pneumatic tubes. It sounds crazy, when you think about it.

It’s starting to look a little less crazy.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced today that it has signed agreements to work with Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum and global engineering design firm Aecom. The two companies will lend their expertise in exchange for stock options in the company, joining the army of engineers from the likes of Boeing and SpaceX already lending their time to the effort.

“It’s a validation of the fact that our model works,” says Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. “It’s the next step.”

The Hyperloop, detailed by SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk in a 57-page alpha white paper in August 2013, is a transportation network of above-ground tubes that could span hundreds of miles. With extremely low air pressure inside those tubes, capsules filled with people would zip through them at near supersonic speeds. Musk published the paper encouraging anyone interested to pursue the idea, since he’s kinda a busy guy.

That timing lined up with the beta launch of JumpStartFund, a startup that combines elements of crowdfunding and crowd-sourcing to tackle ambitious projects like revolutionary transportation infrastructure. JumpStartFund created Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc, which brought together engineers willing to spend their free time working on the design in exchange for stock options.

The startup plans to start construction on a full-scale, passenger-ready Hyperloop in 2016. The prototype will run 5 miles through Quay Valley, a planned community rising from nothing along Interstate 5, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ahlborn says he’s got several potential investors.

The startup also announced today that it has 400 “team members” working on the project. They aren’t employees, but women and men with regular gigs at places like NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX, who spend their spare time on Hyperloop in exchange for stock options. It’s easy to see why they want to get involved: it’s the chance to work on a truly revolutionary form of transportation—even if some remain convinced it’s never gonna happen.

The partnerships with Oerlikon and Aecom are a big endorsement, suggesting the prototype may be a real thing, not an idea whipped up by Don Quixote. It shows the project is worthy of time and effort from two publicly traded companies with shareholders to answer to. And these companies know what they’re doing. Oerlikon has been in the vacuum business for more than a century and has worked on projects like the large hadron collider at CERN.

“I don’t think the construction hurdles are significant compared to other technologies that are already out there,” says Carl Brockmeyer, Oerlikon’s head of business development. “From a technical point of view, it’s not a challenge. We are used to much higher and harsher applications.”

The hard part on the Hyperloop project, Brockmeyer says, will be “to remain within other constraints,” like energy consumption and cost.

Oerlikon has put a half-dozen employees on the project. They’re simulating how much energy it would take to clear the Hyperloop tube to near zero pressure and what it would cost. Brockmeyer declined to give exact figures, but says “you will be surprised” by how little energy is required. In fact, he says the energy could be generated by the solar panels and wind turbines Ahlborn plans to erect in Quay Valley. All that aside, there’s another reason Oerlikon signed on.

“I thought, ‘Traveling in a vacuum tube? This is something we should be involved in,'” Brockmeyer says.

Aecom is there to help get it built. It’s routinely involved in major architecture and infrastructure projects, including Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena, the Crossrail tunnel being built under London, and the Alameda Corridor freight rail expressway in Southern California. Andrew Liu, VP of new ventures for the Fortune 500 company, says the technology needed to make Hyperloop work is here, now. “He has some very realistic plans,” Liu says of Ahlborn. “He’s approaching this the right way.”

It remains to be seen how this will pan out, but having these two companies sign on makes it more likely than ever that the future of transportation may not be autonomous vehicles or supersonic jets, but capsules flying through vacuum tubes.


http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/08/elon-musks-hyperloop-is-actually-getting-kind-of-serious/

---

...I don't believe a word of it, but rarin' to collect Dio's 100ec...

[Buster's Uncle]

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Dream Becoming Reality
Boldride
By Jonathon Klein  21 hours ago






Can Elon Musk do no wrong? Can he ever fail? Is he human? Or is he a Bond villain, just biding his time, while he strokes a white cat from a swivel chair? Seriously, whatever that man comes up with, or touches instantly turns the world on its head.

Between Tesla’s groundbreaking cars and disruptions to the dealership model, to commercializing space travel with SpaceX, to SolarCity attempting to shake up the power industry, Elon Musk is at war with convention. Musk’s latest mad scientist idea, the Hyperloop, is moving forward after just being a design sketch only a few short months ago.





The Hyperloop is essentially a monorail on steroids, or perhaps a better analogy would be those tubes you use at a bank. For those, pressurized air propels the capsule along. The Hyperloop would use a similar method; however, the pods would be propelled by magnets in the tubes that would allow for speeds in excess of 700 miles per hour.

Two separate companies are currently in the process of building Hyperloop test tracks. One is Musk’s own SpaceX, and the construction of the test track and facility are beginning to move forward in Texas. There, SpaceX will hold competitions with colleges from around the world, very much like the Formula SAE competitions. The company will also allow other manufacturers access to the test track to help design and test different pod styles and load limits.





The second company is one outside of Musk’s purview called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT). Already in the design and partnership phase, HTT plan on building a full-scale working prototype along California’s Interstate 5 through the San Joaquin Valley. The company has already announced that it is collaborating with Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, the company responsible for building a new rail tunnel beneath London, and global engineering firm Aecom. The latter will be the actual builders of the project, with Oerlikon supplying many of the intricate and delicate parts to make the system work.

If Musk’s previous ideas are any indication of what to expect from a working Hyperloop, the world is going to once again be flipped onto its head in terms of transportation. Imagine getting from New York to Orlando in under two hours without ever needing to hop on a plane. Or from the West Coast to the East Coast in under four hours. Seeing as this was just a thought and a sketch on a napkin only a short time ago, the speed at which this project is advancing is incredible. The future is coming, and is possibly closer than we ever imagined.





http://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-hyperloop-dream-becoming-reality-220055450.html

[Buster's Uncle]

New Hyperloop video shows off a bunch of tubes lying in the desert
Andrew J . Hawkins
The Verge  January 07, 2016






CNNMoney has video of the first Hyperloop test track being constructed in the desert outside of Las Vegas. Hyperloop Technologies Inc., one of the two startups working to bring the supersonic form of travel into reality, gave the network access to the site where it is building a 3-mile test track, which the company says will be completed by the end of 2016.

So far, that only amounts to a bunch of tubes in the desert, but Hyperloop Technologies CEO Rob Lloyd described the unassuming scene as his company's "Kitty Hawk" moment, referring the North Carolina town where the Wright brothers flew the world's first airplane.

We saw the first Hyperloop tubes in the desert

"The idea, when we think about moving at these speeds and this kind of transformational technology, is a big idea, and the thing we find most people ask is, ‘Show me,'" Lloyd said. "We actually have the whole company riveted behind achieving our own Kitty Hawk moment."

There's a lot of hype — and a lot of skepticism — surrounding Hyperloop right now. In addition to Hyperloop Technologies, a company called Hyperloop Transportation Technology is attempting to build its own test system using crowdfunding and volunteer labor. And Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who popularized the idea of the Hyperloop by posting his white paper as an open-source challenge, is sponsoring a design competition among high school and college students later this month.


"The thing we find most people ask is, ‘Show me.'"


Lloyd said that while the concept sounds futuristic — pods of travelers careening through frictionless tubes at speeds approaching 760 mph — the science behind it is actually quite simple.

"You just remove the pressure from inside an enclosed environment," he told CNNMoney. "You can think of that as a tube. You remove the friction of wheels by levitating that pod inside the tube. Then it takes a very little amount of energy to move that pod at incredible speeds."


https://www.yahoo.com/tech/hyperloop-video-shows-off-bunch-193910245.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Hyperloop One is testing its propulsion system in the Nevada desert today
As the two major Hyperloop companies report their progress, one system gets a live test.
ArsTechnica
by Megan Geuss - May 11, 2016 4:54pm EDT



Here's a look at the sled Hyperloop One is testing in North Las Vegas today.






In North Las Vegas today, a startup called Hyperloop One propelled a 10-foot-long sled down a track, accelerating it to 116 mph before it hit a patch of sand on the tracks. The test took about four seconds, USA Today reported.

The test of Hyperloop One's propulsion system is just one step of many on the path to achieve a dream put forth by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who first drew up a plan to transport people at 760mph in low-pressure tubes in 2013. Musk decided not to pursue this business venture, which he called Hyperloop, but his whitepaper spawned two rival Hyperloop companies and an international student engineer competition.

Hyperloop One, formerly known Hyperloop Technologies, announced its name change on Tuesday, hoping to differentiate itself from Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), which has also made considerable headway in research and development of such a transportation system. HTT announced on Monday that it had exclusively licensed passive magnetic levitation technology that would serve to keep Hyperloop pods off the track, minimizing friction as they speed through a tube.

Hyperloop One has been less forthcoming than HTT with respect to the technology it plans to use to build the ambitious project. Today's test was conducted with the press and investors a good distance from the track, and it was not a full prototype as much as a proof-of-concept for the propulsion system. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company's strategy for building such massive infrastructure is to focus on components of the Hyperloop—like levitation, propulsion, and tube design, for example—and then take those components and try to build them better and less expensively each time.

The test track was in open air, so the test sled experienced drag that a finished Hyperloop would not. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the sled was “magnetically levitated” on a single center track. Although the exact system was not clear, the WSJ said that Hyperloop One is “experimenting with permanent magnets” similar to HTT's proposed technology. The sled was crashed into a pile of sand because Hyperloop One engineers have not yet designed a brake system for the test sled.


New partners

Hyperloop One has also announced a variety of partners and funding to get the idea off the ground (excuse the pun). It will be working with multinational engineering firm AECOM and Swiss-based Cargo Sous Terrain to see how a Hyperloop system could be used to improve cargo shipping from docks to locations around the world.

The company said it has raised $80 million in Series B funding from investors such as French national rail company SNCF, GE Ventures, Western Technology Investment, and others. (French news had rumored that SNCF would be investing $80 million in the Hyperloop company, but it appears that the investment is only a portion of that $80 million Series B.)

Hyperloop One's goal, it says, is to build and test a 3-mile Hyperloop tube, a pod, and the computer that pilots the pod by the end of this year.

According to USA Today, Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd said today, "We think we can move cargo by 2019 and passengers by 2021, if we can replicate the kind of support we've gotten here from the county and city of North Las Vegas."


http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/hyperloop-one-is-testing-its-propulsion-system-in-the-nevada-desert-today/

[Unorthodox]

Eh.  Roller coasters have been using that magnetic acceleration for a while.  It's how you get the vacuum tube that is the sticking point to the design, IMO. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Good on 'em for doing the research but I'll believe in this thing when it's built and making money and exporting solar power...

[Unorthodox]

I just can't help but think a proper knockoff of the Japanese bullet train wouldn't be a better idea all round.  Cheaper, easier, proven...

[Buster's Uncle]

Musk doesn't think that way, though - I've never heard of him mentioning being a Heinlein fan, but he HAS to be, with his citizen rocketry and this is trying to start the rolling roads after a fashion, and I promise he'll try to do road cities if it works...

He was already a innernets -or something- gadzillionaire before he started any of the fantastic blue sky stuff - which I'm sure he only cares about making a profit off of because -even more than not wanting to bust and go back to being poor (and powerless)- he wants to be imitated, because he's trying to create the flying car Buck Rogers space future we never got...

-This is The Man Who Sold The Moon - Musk is Delos D. Harriman, who, remember, cared about money but risked it all, because he wanted the Moon, travel to - and money was (only) the tool.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hyperloop firm expands to ‘Aerospace Valley’
CNBC  January 24, 2017



Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is looking to tap the expertise of aerospace experts.



Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is looking to tap the expertise of aerospace experts as it works on developing the high speed transport system known as the hyperloop.

HTT says it will set up a research and development center in Toulouse, France which is home to aviation giant Airbus ().

"This is where a huge part of our research will be done. The area is great because you have all the suppliers very close to you and talented people, it's a great opportunity," Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of HTT, told CNBC by phone.

The hyperloop is a concept many believe will challenge other forms of transportation, including airplanes, by moving people and cargo through tubes at speeds of up to 700 miles per hour. Tesla (TXL-CA) and SpaceX founder Elon Musk  came up with the idea for the hyperloop in 2013. Since then two firms, Hyperloop One and HTT have been racing to develop their own versions of the hyperloop.

While Hyperloop One says it will show a full-scale test run of its hyperloop system in the first half of this year, its competitor HTT told CNBC it is aiming to begin construction of the first full-scale passenger version this year, with development completed within three years.

HTT has reached agreements with four government entities around the world to study developing a hyperloop, including in Slovakia and Abu Dhabi. It also plans to build a version of the hyperloop in central California, though no date has been set for contraction.

The company is confident an R&D center in an aerospace hotbed will help it overcome the challenges of transporting people and goods in a tube at ultra-high speeds. Ahlborn told CNBC that it would employ 50 people in its new indoor and outdoor facility, as well as bringing on board individual experts and universities from the surrounding areas.

HTT uses a "crowdsourcing business model. The project has over 10,000 people who have day jobs at places which include NASA and SpaceX. They all contribute ideas to the project in their free time in return for stock options in the company.

The company recently raised over $100 million in equity and in-kind investment. This refers to companies who are physically making parts of the hyperloop in exchange for stock options, rather than investing via equity. Ahlborn would not comment on the exact valuation but said that the rising figure shows that people back the idea.

"The valuation has reached a point where some people that joined the company and are working in exchange for stock options are millionaires on paper. It's validated the model," Ahlborn told CNBC.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/hyperloop-firm-expands-aerospace-valley-083000212.html

[Unorthodox]

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/92458412-132.html

unembeddable video at link. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Ready to Ride? Hyperloop One Completes Testing Tube
The hyperloop could take travelers and cargo between nearby cities in underground pods traveling at jet-like speeds.
PC Magazine
By Tom Brant  April 6, 2017 05:17pm EST




 

Since its first demonstration last year of the hyperloop technology that could one day propel travelers in underground pods at jet-like speeds, the startup Hyperloop One has upgraded its test track in the Nevada desert to make its case for what it hopes will be the future of intercity transportation worldwide.

Hyperloop One put the finishing touches on its 1,640-foot testing tube in North Las Vegas this week. Inside the tube, pods filled with passengers and cargo will magnetically levitate and accelerate via electric propulsion to speeds approaching those of a commercial airliner. Such high speeds are attainable because of the tube's low atmospheric pressure, which contributes to reduced aerodynamic drag.

The company plans to have a team of 500 engineers, fabricators, scientists, and other employees working on its technology by the end of the year. That's a big increase from last year, when the company had fewer than 100 engineers, many of them ex-NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees based at the company's headquarters in California.

Last May, those engineers demonstrated their propulsion technology in front of hundreds of journalists. A small white sled accelerated to more than 100 miles an hour over a straight track of a few hundred meters, and the entire test lasted less than five seconds. One of the ex-JPL engineers, Cassandra Mercury, said at the time that the company was looking forward to testing the completed design.

"We're going to have it levitating, in a tube, with a pod, at vacuum," she told PCMag. "That's why they're calling it the Kitty Hawk moment." With the tube now completed, those tests can begin, although the company did not offer a timeframe.

In addition to overcoming technological hurdles, the company has also faced legal ones: co-founder and CTO Brogan BamBrogan, along with other former employees, sued the company last summer for wrongful termination, alleging, among other things, that they were forced out for speaking to investors about cultural issues within the futuristic firm.

Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd said in a statement on Wednesday that the technology will "transform transportation as we know it." He is currently promoting the hyperloop as a feasible alternative to driving or flying between cities in the same region, such as Los Angeles to San Diego, Miami to Orlando, and Seattle to Portland.


http://www.pcmag.com/news/352917/

[Unorthodox]

Underground tubes?  I thought they were elevated and covered in solar panels to generate significant surplus  energy?