Innovation
The Hyperloop – On a High-speed Evolutionary Journey
At a time when the future of mass transit is anything but clear with speculations on wide range of possibilities – driverless cars, flying taxies, high-speed trains, etc., the Hyperloop system is fast emerging as the most pragmatic one owing to its high-speed, low-cost and environment-neutral carbon footprints…
Speed Travel
For over a century now, innovators and scientists have been propounding several theories to make travel through air-tight or near-vacuum tubes a reality. While several amateur, out-of-the-box attempts have been made in the past to move people/material via underground tubes, the final breakthrough innovation idea came up at an event in Santa Monica, California, in July 2012. SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk announced creation of a fifth mode of transportation (i.e. after road, water, air and rail) – the Hyperloop. A futuristic transportation system, expected to be a commercial reality by 2030, the Hyperloop would facilitate passenger travel at speeds faster than that of an aeroplane. Indeed, the event marked the beginning of a new era in ‘hypersonic’ transportation – an era of high-speed passenger transportation that promises to be low on power consumption, collision-free, environment-friendly and immune to weather irregularities.
Mission Hyperloop Alpha
Breathing life into a hypothetical concept of ‘Hyperloop’, a group of engineers from Tesla and SpaceX got onto the shop-floor to create the world’s first operational prototype. After an intense year-long R&D work on different technologies, the team put together a preliminary design – the Hyperloop Alpha. The design proposed construction of passenger pods, powered by advance linear electric motors, gliding above the track at cruising speeds in vacuum tunnels. To propel the passenger pod at over 700 mph, they proposed embedded magnetic accelerators along the length of the track. Making travel through the tube environment-friendly, they recommended installation of solar panels on the tube’s exterior to generate energy in excess of what’s required. The Hyperloop Alpha design system promised to make travelling between cities faster, cheaper and more energy efficient than all prevailing modes of transportation.
Development Initiative
Interestingly, though Elon Musk first presented the breakthrough idea, he was not in favour of SpaceX developing an ‘operational’ prototype, exclusively and independently. Treating the Hyperloop Alpha design as only the starting point, Musk decided to release the design as an open source. Thereafter, he invited the engineering community and students from across globe to improve upon the design, and help develop an operational prototype pod, via competitions.
In the second stage, the 30-teams selected were invited to build a subscale prototype Hyperloop Pod, and bring them to the SpaceX test track for Hyperloop Pod Competition. While the second and third competition were held, SpaceX scheduled the fourth in 2019. Incidentally, a student group – Avishkar from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, was one of the 21 globally short-listed teams for the competition.
Prototype Testing
Theoretically, passenger travel at high speeds in pods propelled using magnetic levitation through low-pressure or near vacuum tube looks possible and feasible, owing to low friction and air resistance. But in reality, arriving at a pragmatic means to accelerate the pod to 700 mph and then de-accelerate it to stop at the end station, within a very short time durations, requires some serious out-of-the-box technology thinking akin to ‘an engineering miracle’.
Most experts agree that the Hyperloop system is still in its early stages of development, while some recent tests with prototype pods and propulsion technology have yielded a top speed of 240 mph, these achievements are just baby steps considering its true potential. Nonetheless, if ever the Hyperloop system manages to achieve the projected speed of 700 miles/hour, these travel pods would be travelling 2-3 times faster than high-speed rails and magnetic levitation trains, and upto 10-15 times faster than traditional railway.
Future of Hyperloop
As conventional transportation systems (i.e. road, water, air and rail) are proving to be expensive, slow and environmentally unsafe, several developed countries have opted in favour of a Hyperloop system making it the most popular and preferred mass transit system of the future. Though the new system promises to effectively address most of the present-day transportation issues, we are yet to see a fully operational large scale commercial Hyperloop system at work. As companies globally busy themselves aggregating their technology knowhow working on simpler and smaller versions, the ever bulging population and precarious environmental issues is opening new opportunities, necessitating mankind to look for better mass transit systems. Undoubtedly, amongst plethora of options available to technocrats and town planners, presently the Hyperloop appears to be the best and safest gamble to take!
–Dr Siddhivinayak Barve
Editor, ScienceNow Digital
