Hyperloop

Today, the “Hyperloop”, projected by SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk in 2013, is undergoing its first public test which is considered an important milestone as it is one of its key components.

Hyperloop One is conducting a test of the Hyperloop system’s electric motor at the Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas, with a speed of 483km/h, this test signals the start of work on the actual Hyperloop transportation system. The Hyperloop would transport people, who would sit inside pods that speed through low-pressure tubes at 1220km/h, between Los Angeles and San Francisco in only 30 minutes.

American physicist and co-inventor of the Superconducting Maglev transportation system, James Powell, told Live Science that there are limitations to the Hyperloop concept. He states that “it's doable, but you have to build a track or tunnel that's very straight. At that speed, the track has to be straight and flat, to avoid bumpiness. When you're going 600 miles per hour, you can't really go around curves, and you'd have to be very flat, because without causing excessive g-forces, you probably wouldn't be able to adjust to changing elevations rapidly."

Hyperloop one announced that it had received $80 million in financing from current and new investors, to develop the transportation system. Shervin Pishevar, Hyperloop One co-founder and executive chairman said in a statement that "the brightest minds are coming together at the right time to eliminate the distances and borders that separate economies and cultures”.

In 2015, Elon Musk signed a deal with central California landowners to build an 8km test track along California Interstate 5 with SpaceX testing some of its Hyperloop prototypes at its own track in Hawthorne, California.