Hyperloop design competition announced

Test track for conceptual high speed train to be built in US

US Spacecraft developer SpaceX has announced it is to build a mile long test track for its 760 mph Hyperloop concept train and is holding an open competition for engineers to design the pods it will carry.

The proposed Hyperloop would run between San Francisco and Los Angeles and consist of a large steel tube suspended on pylons, from which most of the air would be evacuated. Capsules inside the tube would float on a 1 mm thin bed of air and be accelerated and decelerated to a top speed of 760 mph.

Hyperloop’s top speed would be 760 mph and use linear induction motors, of a similar type to those used to propel Maglev trains today. The capsules, each of which would carry 28 passengers, would be fitted with a fan and air compressor to transfer high pressure air from the front to the rear of the capsules. The system would be fuelled by solar panels mounted on the top of the steel tube and batteries. The 354 mile journey between the two cities would take just 35 minutes.

The original design brief, was announced by Elon Musk in August 2013. Musk is a South African-born physicist turned industrial entrepreneur, and is the man behind both Spacex, which is developing spacecraft for NASA and electric sportscar and battery manufacturer Tesla.

SpaceX wants “university students and independent engineering teams” to apply for the competition by September 2015. Selected teams will be able to test full size prototype pods during a competition weekend at the newly built test track in Hawthorne, California, during June 2016.

Groups that wish to apply can do so here.

Fundamental engineering challenges with the idea usually revolve around dealing with the heat created by the movement of the remaining air within the tube and how it would affect equipment. There are also doubts about the amount of energy the system would require and how high winds would affect the tube and pylon structure and affect the movement of the capsules.

Software companies have run computer simulations, including computational fluid dynamics specialists at Ansys and mathematical computing supplier Mathworks analysing the Hyperloop concept.