Remember watching those old sci-fi movies with giant futuristic cities? In nearly every one of those movie renditions of the future, giant tubes would line the ground, transporting people from point A to point B in the blink of an eye. After the credits rolled, you would always think about how cool it would be to zoom around in those tubes but understood that would never become a reality. Well, fast forward to the year 2015 and we may not be that far away from those fictional tales becoming a reality. Inventor Elon Musk has put together the pieces of a plan for the Hyperloop to start construction in 2016 with a public opening in California slated in 2018.
The Hyperloop is a low-pressure system that runs in a near-vacuum. The possibility of a perfect vacuum may not ever be worked out, but the Hyperloop is as close as we might come. The structure of the tube has aluminum passenger pods with the entire walls lined in steel. The capsules within the Hyperloop will be able to travel at speeds above 500 miles per hour. The CEO of Hyperloop Dirk Ahlborn released the following quote about the project:
“โWhat we are doing has never been done before, so that is a very big challenge. Over the next couple of months, we are going to reveal some things we have been working on for quite some time,โ Ahlborn added.”
Personally, I am very excited thinking about the possibilities of this project. However there are always large concerns to consider. If the passenger pod were to ever eject from the mechanism, the lives of all the people inside would be at incredible risk. The sheer speed alone of the pod would cause catastrophic losses to those within. Will we have enough people who understand the inner workings of the Hyperpod if an emergency happened and something needed to be fixed on the fly?
Regardless, the Hyperloop could connect the world in an instant, and make those sci-fi movies come to life.
(Thanks to RT for the story and quote.)
