Slashdot Mirror
University Students Made a Working Model Hyperloop
derekmead writes: Elon Musk's Hyperloop gets people excited. Promise the ability to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and you're going to get people salivating. But for as much as we've heard about it, we've had scarcely little to see—until a team of students at the University of Illinois decided to build their very own miniature hyperloop.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a "fourth mode of transportation" that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source whitepaper (PDF) published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.
An hour to get from New York to San Francisco, an hour and a half to get through the TSA inspection and baggage handling. An enclosed tin can would be a perfect environment for a terrorist attack, and even if it wasn't the TSA would want to stick their noses in for the sake of empire building.
Also in Musk's published photos, they'd have a hard time fitting in the disabled access and public toilets which would be demanded by regulators and pressure groups.
Depending on cost and energy requirements, the Hyperloop may be better suited to goods transport. High acceleration and deceleration forces would not be a problem for goods shipments.
Godel_56 posting anon. due to mod points.
Ever heard of Scotland? It has worse population density then the US East of the Mississippi. Sweden actually has a population comparable to NYC spread out over a land mass comparable to Cali. Finland's population density is more comparable to Alaska then any other US State. They don't all have record-breaking high-speed rail systems, but they all have rail systems connecting every major City.
Look at it this way: let's say we implement Hi-speed rail in a state with a highly concentrated and relatively large population. Michigan has 9 million people, 58% of them live within two counties of Detroit. Anywhere you're likely to go is within an two hours of Detroit by car, which means means the train has to stop every 20 miles, which makes it very hard to use the high speed, all the construction is somebody's house, so it's very expensive to build, etc. The rail system that makes the least amount of nonsense for the state would probably be circa-1940 speeds from Detroit to Toledo, Gary, and the Wisconsin border, with stops in major cities on the way, and an extensive streetcar system also using 1930s tech.
Let's say, OTOH, you just put a hi-speed rail line across the middle of Montana east-to-west. The low population density makes it incredibly useful because people're likely to be driving for hours and hours across the damn state otherwise. Now it's true there wouldn't necessarily be a whole lot of riders, but if the line actually goes from Minnesota to Seattle...
Rail makes sense when it goes from one major population center to another through ranch land that's cheap to get right-of-way through.
Someone else who didn't bother to read the proposal, but knows all about it. The references to gas pipelines are about construction techniques, not layout. The thing is proposed to be built on pylons 20 to 100 feet tall. All those dips and valleys and hills and streams just went away. There is a tunnel through a mountain that is too high.