Hyperloop One passes first big test
One small push for Hyperloop, one giant thrust for the future of transportation.
In the arid northern deserts of Nevada, far from the bright lights and towering edifices of Las Vegas, the Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One took a gamble and won, successfully testing its linear induction propulsion system.
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A grandstand full of journalists and Hyperloop One supporters watched as a series of stators (basically electromagnetic blades) quickly powered up under the sled, which then flew by at about the speed of a fast car (115 mph or so).
The test, while fast, was, to be honest, somewhat underwhelming. After the initial countdown, the sled took off from the start position and whizzed by on a track at a measured 2.4 Gs of acceleration. Special grabbers underneath the sled then slammed into a sandpit, which effectively slowed the sled down to zero and ended the test.
Future tests on this track at the 39.9 acre facility will go much, much faster.
While the final Hyperloop One system will use permanent magnets to levitate the pods off the track, this sled actually sat on the metal rails, which probably future slowed it down.
The beginning
"This is the first step in a long journey," said Hyperloop One co-founder and CTO Brogan BamBrogan
He's right. The electromagnet-based propulsion system is just one small part of the full transportation system that Hyperloop One (formerly Hyperloop Technologies) hopes to launch in the not-too-distant future.
Originally the brainchild of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, Hyperloop transportation consists of sealed pods traveling at subsonic speeds in a low-pressure tube that's elevated above the ground on pylons. It's intended to be a low-energy (solar) and low-emission system. It could also be a viable mass transportation alternative for traffic-snarled corridors like those between New York and Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and San Francisco, completing the latter trip in as little as 35 minutes.
Musk produced a lengthy Hyperloop white paper and then open-sourced the concept in 2014. As a result, the Hyperloop race is on, and, with Wednesday's test, Hyperloop One may have just inched ahead of rival HTT.
Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd seemed elated by the short test's results and predicts that, with enough cooperation from local and state government bodies (the kind they've found in Nevada and Las Vegas), Hyperloop One will be moving cargo by 2019 and people as early as 2021.
As for what Hyperloop One has in store for the short-term, BamBrogan said, "a lot more of this testing."
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Topics Elon Musk
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
