When billionaire Elon Musk speakers about the Hyperloop project, many people sit forward to hear the latest news. It has been over two years since Musk first spoke of the Hyperloop transit project. His company SpaceX, which builds rockets, announced on Monday that they intend to build a test track in Los Angeles.
The test track will be beside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, LA. It will be one mile long or 1.6 kilometers. The intention for the track is to test designs for Hyperloop pods. These pods are meant to carry people within the tube in a high-power, ultra-fast transportation system.
The concept behind Hyperloop is to transport passenger-carrying pods to and from LA and San Francisco at high speeds of about 750 miles per hour or 1200 kilometers. At this speed, the distance of 400 miles (640 kilometers) would only take about half an hour.
Designs for the test track will come from a competition, explained SpaceX in the same announcement this week.
The competitors will be engineering teams from universities and independent companies. Their goal will be to create the best design for the Hyperloop passenger pods, which can then be made into a prototype.
The complete rules and details for the competition will release in August. There is no word yet as to what the prize is, whether monetary or another type. As for the cost of building a full Hyperloop system, Musk has estimated it would be about $6 billion (US). Other people have suggested it would be a higher cost.
SpaceX explained, in the announcement, it is likely to build a pod solely for demonstration purposes. The SpaceX engineering team is not eligible for the competition.
Hyperloop Technologies Inc. is researching the system and is raising funds for a 5-mile test track that requires they have $80 million (US).