8/16/13 Musk announces plans to build Hyperloop demonstrator

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URBAN TRANSPORT

By Brian Dodson

August 13, 2013

9 Comments

Musk announces plans tobuild Hyperloopdemonstrator

Elon Musk has announced that he will take the lead in developing a

Hyperloop demonstrator (Photo: Tesla Motors)

In a telephone press conference this morning, Elon Musk, the many-faceted

founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX, expanded his earlier

Hyperloop reveal by announcing that he will develop and construct a

Hyperloop demonstrator. He believes that a properly funded consortium

would take about seven years to build a commercial Hyperloop.

An informal team of a dozen engineers chosen from Tesla Motors and

SpaceX worked for about nine months on the conceptual and modeling

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Elon Musk gives us thegoods on Hyperloop

Musk announces plans tobuild Hyperloopdemonstrator

8/16/13 Musk announces plans to build Hyperloop demonstrator

www.gizmag.com/musk-developing-hyperloop-demonstrator/28684/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6128234b18-UA-2235360-4&utm_medi… 2/7

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foundation underpinning the Hyperloop. “We were just batting it around in

the background at SpaceX and Tesla and then in the last few weeks we

ended up allocating some full-time days to it,” Forbes reports Musk as

saying.

The Hyperloop experience is expected to more closely resemble an

airplane ride than that of a train. “There will be initial acceleration and once

you’re at traveling speed you wouldn’t really notice the speed at all,” Musk

is reported to have said. “It should just feel really super smooth and quiet,

and obviously there wouldn’t be any turbulence or anything.”

Musk reiterated that the Hyperloop is aimed at high-traffic links between

cities separated by less than about 1,000 miles (roughly 1,500 km). For

longer distances, he believes the economics of a supersonic airplane with a

low sonic profile will win out. Might such an airplane be his next project?

We'll be taking a closer look at Musk's Hyperloop in the coming days.

Source: Forbes

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About the Author

From an early age Brian wanted to become a scientist. He

did, earning a Ph.D. in physics and embarking on an R&D

career which has recently broken the 40th anniversary.

What he didn't expect was that along the way he would

become a patent agent, a rocket scientist, a gourmet cook,

a biotech entrepreneur, an opera tenor and a science

writer. All articles by Brian Dodson

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9 Comments

Walt built a monorail doesn't make it a practical form of transportation.

Building a solar to liquid fuel pilot plant would do far more for the

environment.

Slowburn

13th August, 2013 @ 09:55 pm PDT

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8/16/13 Musk announces plans to build Hyperloop demonstrator

www.gizmag.com/musk-developing-hyperloop-demonstrator/28684/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6128234b18-UA-2235360-4&utm_medi… 3/7

I'm wondering how short a distance would be economically viable. In

particular using this techonology for the 140 mile strech of the

proposed High Speed 2 link between London and Birmingham? Theinitial estiamted cost of that was around 50 billion and rising. Seems

may as well have a radical shift if we're going to spend that much...

SPW78

14th August, 2013 @ 07:20 am PDT

The Hyperloop may be a pipe dream in some people's eyes, but kudosto Elon Musk for putting his money where his mouth is. I bet there are

places that would welcome the opportunity to build it.

Bruce H. Anderson

14th August, 2013 @ 09:14 am PDT

Makes a great deal of sense for cargo transport.

Seth Miesters

14th August, 2013 @ 11:52 am PDT

The beauty of this system is that, by travelling in a vacuum and using

maglev, your capsule becomes almost capable of perpetual motion.

Once it has been accelerated up to speed it coasts the rest of the waywithout any energy input needed. Using rail gun technology it should

be possible to accelerate a lightweight capsule at, say, 1g (0 - 60 in

2.7s, a Porsche 911 can do that) without the power demand gettingtotally over the top. From this point on I'm going to go metric as it's

simpler to do the calculations.

Assuming that we want a speed of 1600Km/hr. (1000 mph). We first

convert to metres per sec m/s. This gives us a speed of 444.4m/s. ,

which at an acceleration of 10m/s/s (2% more than 1g, but who'squibbling?) will take 44.4s to achieve over a distance just under 10

Km, or about 6 miles.

As already stated, once we have achieved this speed the capsule will

coast the rest of the way, until we need to slow it down to stop ithitting the buffers at 1000mph!

This acceleration will require a decent amount of energy. Assume wehave capsules that weigh 2Tonne. The total energy required to

accelerate this mass up to 1600Km/hr is 197.5 MJ, which averages out

at 4448KW for the 44 seconds. Unfortunately, it's not quite as simpleas that as in the early stages it will require less power but as we build

up speed we will need ever increasing amounts of power to maintain

our 1g acceleration. In the last second of acceleration we will need tobe supplying power at the rate of about 8787KW (11600hp).

Now comes the good news, and it is good news. Remember that

deceleration that we need to stop us at the end of the journey? Thebest way to achieve that is to have another rail gun at the other end.Only, this one works in reverse, and instead of putting Megawatts of

energy into it, it generates Megawatts of energy as it takes energyfrom the capsule. In a perfect theoretical system it would be able toconvert all the energy that went into accelerating us at the beginning

of the journey back into electricity. Of course this is not a perfectworld and so we would only get a proportion of it back. But, given thehigh efficiency of electrical systems generally, we could expect that

with the right development work this might be as high as 80%. I saymight.

There are at least three reasons for using individual capsules, rather

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8/16/13 Musk announces plans to build Hyperloop demonstrator

www.gizmag.com/musk-developing-hyperloop-demonstrator/28684/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6128234b18-UA-2235360-4&utm_medi… 4/7

than conventional trains. Firstly, the power required is proportional tothe mass (weight). If we try to use trains we will require much beefier

electrical systems to accelerate all that mass, systems that will besitting idle during the half hour, say, between trains. If we send 10seater capsules every 45 seconds that will amount to a 200 seat train

every half hour. The second reason to use capsules concerns safety.At 1000mph there are unlikely to be any survivors if, for example,there was a serious breach of the tube. Using smart control systems so

that each capsule knows the position, state and speed of all the othercapsules in the tube, it should be possible to limit any catastrophicdisaster to just one capsule. The third reason that I can see for using

individual capsules is that it will lower the loading on the structure,making it possible to lengthen the span between supports.

There is nothing about this proposal that is beyond our presenttechnology. I can't see any reason why development costs should beany higher than for a new airliner, and while infrastructure cost will be

high they should be well within reach, particularly if an existingtransport corridor can be used.

Mick Cane

14th August, 2013 @ 02:02 pm PDT

The Hyperloop does not need to prove the engineering they need to

work out the logistics.

Moving millions of people 28 passengers at a time will be anightmare.

This has the same problem as most transportation systems, "how doyou get over 300 people and their luggage into the station on to the

train car every hour, when you have 300 people coming in on thetrains needing to get out of the station out to their final destination".

Robin McCabe

14th August, 2013 @ 02:07 pm PDT

Love to see it run on these routes:

LA to NY Denver, New Orleans, Miami, Memphis, Toronto, St Paul MN& or from NY to LA, Denver to Santa Fe or Houston or Sedona AZ

Be huge If safe to travel & escape in emergencies etc.

Like to see fullsize mockup at LA CA Auto show, Be awesome

Stephen N Russell

14th August, 2013 @ 06:00 pm PDT

@SPW78.

Yes, I agree, it would be a good idea to consider something radical for

this vastly expensive project and I can't see any reason why itshouldn't be economically viable over a shorter distance. There are afew things that can be done to reduce costs.

1). Reduce the speed. If we bring the speed down from 1000mph to620mph, then the length of rail gun needed at each end of the trackis reduced by over 60%. Since this is the most expensive part of the

track to build, and, since we'll still be able to go from Euston to NewStreet in a tad under 15 minutes, it seems sensible to sacrifice a littlebit of speed for a 60% saving in this area.

2). Reduce the cross-section area. If we do this to the same as a smallcar, then we will be able to use a similarly smaller "pipeline". This will

save costs in a number of ways. The effort to maintain a vacuum will

8/16/13 Musk announces plans to build Hyperloop demonstrator

www.gizmag.com/musk-developing-hyperloop-demonstrator/28684/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6128234b18-UA-2235360-4&utm_medi… 5/7

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be reduced. The whole structure will be lighter, enabling greaterspacing between support columns. If we arrange the N and S tubes

vertically with a space between them and truss framing connectingthem then we can make the whole structure into an immensely rigidgirder and increas the spacing between support piers.

3). Where possible use existing transport corridors. By building thetrack as an overhead system it should be possible to use existing

corridors for a fair proportion of the length. Where this is not possibleland purchase could be minimised if the overhead rail enjoyed similarconditions to electricity supply, which simply pays a rent to land

owners for placement of pylons and access.

How about Gizmag Brits form a lobby group to promote this as a

viable alternative to the relatively slow white elephant currentlyproposed.? Get support from the right scientific and technologicalbrains and get it on the agenda. It's environmental, social and

energy/carbon advantages are evident to anyone who applies a bit ofthought.

Next stop - Kings Cross to Waverly in 55 minutes? London to Paris in

35?

Mick Cane

15th August, 2013 @ 03:39 am PDT

Musk doesn't use his own money. He uses tax payers' money. Thisidea is impractical; I know it, you know it, Musk knows it, but idiots in

the government bureaucracy don't know it.

Guy Macher

15th August, 2013 @ 04:31 am PDT

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