Successful people don’t just dream, they dream big. And when they dream, they give their all and make that dream happen at all cost. It pretty much describes the man that is Elon Musk. If you haven’t come across his name yet, he is the renowned founder/owner of Tesla, Space X, and man behind the revolutionary transportation means, the Hyperloop. The Hyperloop is one ambitious project as it is. It is essentially Musk’s proposal for a modern passenger and freight transportation that looks like a sealed tube but can travel at unimaginable speeds. It is easily dubbed by many today as the way to travel in the future once it becomes a reality.
A man that isn’t confined by conventions, Elon Musk is doing things that many only dreams of. Not only is he flying rockets into space and driving around posh electric cars, he has this crazy wild idea of making the Hyperloop a real thing. Can you even imagine seeing the Hyperloop come to life? Many are actually excited because it will hopefully put an end to many transportation problems we are now facing. But will we be able to see one in our lifetime? We really can’t tell although Musk and his people are working really hard on this project.
Ever since Elon Musk shared his blueprints for the hyperloop – a revolutionary transport system that has the potential to shuttle humans at speeds of more than 1,200 km/h (746 mph) – the engineering community has been in overdrive, with hyperloop prototypes popping up all over the place.
And now Musk has put up footage of a test pod accelerating to 324 km/h (201 mph) over the space of just a few seconds, and… well, we’ll let you watch for yourself, because it’s pretty spectacular stuff.
The footage was shot at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition over the weekend, and this is the winning design in action.
Perhaps we all agree that all good things start as an idea that burned a passion so strong there is nothing else left to do but to realize it. A wise man of vision and guts, maybe it takes a man like Elon Musk to realize such a visionary dream like the Hyperloop. But since it is still in its early stages, it is inevitable for problems to occur and they are facing multiple issues right now in their attempt to revolutionize transportation as expected.
If all goes well, their pod would eventually travel at more than 700mph (1,120km/h), propelling people between Los Angeles and San Francisco in half an hour, instead of six hours in a car or an hour-long flight.
But this is early days and the students are testing their pod for the first time on a nearly mile-long vacuum tube track outside Mr Musk’s office in Hawthorne near Los Angeles.
They’d lost connectivity. The vacuum needs to be unsealed and the pod fiddled with. Then the vacuum must be resealed and all the air inside pumped out. Revolutionising transport takes time.
The Swiss loop team eventually re-established communications with their pod and successfully completed a test on the track. Two-dozen student teams were competing – but only three qualified to test their pods in the Hyperloop tube.
(Via: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41075451)
In reality, the Hyperloop isn’t just Musk’s brainchild, it is a collaboration of some of the world’s brightest innovators that will help him realize his vision. Exceptionally bright students from the world over make their own prototypes and compete with others to find out whose idea/work is the best among the rest. But for now, the rest of the world may raise their eyebrows and think of all their efforts as fictional but like with any technology we now have and enjoy, they all seemed impossible at first but became our reality with the brilliants minds and persistence of these innovators at work.