Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online – @BednarChuck
One of the startup companies that previously acquired the rights to Elon Musk’s next-gen Hyperloop transportation system is planning to build a five-mile test track in California.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of the companies that accepted Musk’s challenge to actually build his proposed friction-free tube transportation system, signed a deal to build a facility along Interstate 5 starting next year, according to Engadget.
Building the loop
Construction on the small-scale Hyperloop should begin next year. It will reportedly cost as much as $100 million to build, and should be operational by 2019, the website added. The test track will be constructed in a five-mile section of Quay Valley, a model town that was supposed to be a 150,000-resident solar-powered city, TechCrunch reported on Thursday.
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The Quay Valley model project was placed on indefinite hold in 2008, but it has since been resurrected for this new project. The Hyperloop is expected to serve as a sort of monorail for the new version of the community, which will feature 25,000 homes, as well as businesses and commercial buildings.
The planned track will be limited to just 200 mph, far lower than the projected 760 mph of the original designs. The goal of the project is to prove that the concept is viable on a smaller scale while also building a functional transport system that goes beyond a tech demo.
Musk’s musings
After coming up with the idea for the Hyperloop, Musk released his work on an open-source basis and opened it up to anyone who wanted to try building the transport system, originally claiming that he did not have time to pursue the project himself. Since then, however, he has reversed course and promised to build a test facility of his own in Texas.
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“Unlike HTT’s, the Musk loop will be used by companies and students to test pod designs, and could even host a student race competition in the vein of Formula SAE,” Engadget said, adding that it we may soon be “seeing Hyperloop tunnels popping up across the country.”
“This is big step. It’s time to take the Hyperloop from concept and design and build the first one,” Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of JumpStartFund, the company that created Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, told CNBC. “This is a phased process. We’ve done feasibility studies and now we will be able test all aspects of the Hyperloop.”
Planning for the future
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies first started exploring the possibility of building the tube-based transport system shortly after the plans were first released back in 2013.
The project, which involved former SpaceX director of mission operations Marco Villa and former American Society of Civil Engineers president Patricia Galloway, started a crowdsourced fundraising campaign at the time. It initially involved between 30 and 50 engineers, and planned to complete a white paper gauging the feasibility of the project before April 2014.
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“The only option for super fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment,” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies wrote in a company profile at the time. “We believe in trying to solve the big problems. By involving the community in this development, we hope to be able to progress with a very fast pace.”
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