How the concept of hyperloop began?
In 2012, entrepreneur of SpaceX and Tesla industries, Elon Musk put forward a hypothetical idea of a new form of a transportation system that would be much faster than a typical jet, much economical, inert to weather, without the possibility of collisions and could be run for 24 hours. Musk’s concept involved building a giant tube of a few meters in diameter between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The tube would carry the transportation pod inside it like a marble inserted inside a pipe and would work on principles of magnetism, pressure variations, and propulsion. The resulting effect of it all would be similar to a puck hovering over an air hockey table and gliding at high speeds at the slightest impact provided by the players.
As hypothesized by Musk, the technology would enable us to achieve speeds up to 700 miles per hour and can cover the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles in just 35 minutes which is much faster than airborne modes of transportation.
Where is hyperloop today?
Elon Musk made the concept of Hyperloop an open source concept encouraging everyone to contribute into turning it into a reality encouraging especially university students and engineers. Not involved in the commercial making of hyperloop despite being the CEO of SpaceX, Musk instead is holding an open competition to boost the concept making of Hyperloop encouraging engineers and technicians to develop prototype pods that would travel in the tube. To even speed things up more, SpaceX has built a one-mile track somewhere in California for the tests of any promising prototype pods. The competition concluded in January 2016 and the shortlisted prototypes that were 22 in number will be tested on SpaceX’s built tracks in June 2016. A number of companies and businessmen have taken a keen interest in the concept of hyperloop and a few startups in the name of Hyperloop have also come into place. The progress that the unbelievably futuristic concept has made in these few years actually hints to it becoming a reality in the near future.