Elon Musk always said he was full up running SpaceX and Tesla Motors to tackle his other grand ambition: the hyperloop. In August 2013 Musk unveiled his proposal for a 700-mph human transport system through steel vacuum tubes. One could, in theory, get from the outskirts of San Francisco to the outskirts of Los Angeles in 30 minutes. People oohed and aahed. Some jeered, some took real issue with the physics of the thing. While the billionaire industrialist turned to the two massive pursuits he already had going, two startups ran ahead with the idea for Musk's supersonic pea shooter.
Well, Musk wants in. SpaceX today announced it will build a one-mile test track at half-scale adjacent to its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. It is due to be completed within a year. At the same time, SpaceX is kicking off a pod design-build competition, all open-sourced, and open to anyone who fills out a form on SpaceX's new Hyperloop web site. The deadline to apply for the competition is September 15. In August Space X will issue detailed technical guidelines. Teams will have until December 15 to submit their final design package. In January the teams will preview their work at Texas A&M and in June 2016 they'll bring their hardware to the Hawthorne test track for a spin—assuming it's finished. All contenders will be unmanned capsules.
SpaceX says it is not getting into the loop business, merely that “it is interested in helping to accelerate development of a functional hyperloop prototype,” says a spokesman. There are still scores of engineering and mechanical issues to resolve around safety mechanisms, costs, propulsion and suspension systems and manufacturing techniques. Teams are welcome to submit entire pod designs, individual subsystems or safety features. SpaceX says it will also likely build its own pod, which will not be eligible to win the competition. Criteria for winning the competition come out in August.
Hyperloop Technologies constructing its "test tube" at its office in industrial downtown LA. (Photo:... [+]
The news doesn't come as a shock to the founders at the two startups that are now somewhat in competition with Musk himself. Hyperloop Technologies, featured on the cover of FORBES in March, is taking delivery of its own test track components at its downtown Los Angeles offices, hoping to learn more about the tolerances and requirements for maintaining a near-vacuum state in a wider-diameter steel tube. The other startup, Los Angeles-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is in the permitting process to build a five-mile showcase track in an eco-friendly real estate development on Interstate 5 fifty miles north of Bakersfield, Calif. Its approach, like Musk's, has been to crowdsource ideas from different teams and has been working on various aspects of the technology for 18 months.
Hyperloop Tech intends to sponsor a design team or two in SpaceX's competition. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies CEO Dirk Ahlborn says, "They asked us and we will see if it's possible as there are many issues that would need to be standardized. We will support them and the community where we can."
Also, we now know the owner of the Twitter handle @hyperloop. It's SpaceX.
Here's the full text of the SpaceX design competition announcement:
THE OFFICIAL SPACEX HYPERLOOP POD COMPETITION
SINCE WE FIRST UNVEILED THE IDEA FOR A NEW HIGH-SPEED GROUND TRANSPORT SYSTEM CALLED THE HYPERLOOP BACK IN 2013, THERE HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF INTEREST IN THE CONCEPT. WE ARE EXCITED THAT A HANDFUL OF PRIVATE COMPANIES HAVE CHOSEN TO PURSUE THIS EFFORT.
NEITHER SPACEX NOR ELON MUSK IS AFFILIATED WITH ANY HYPERLOOP COMPANIES. WHILE WE ARE NOT DEVELOPING A COMMERCIAL HYPERLOOP OURSELVES, WE ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING TO ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT OF A FUNCTIONAL HYPERLOOP PROTOTYPE.
FOR THIS REASON, SPACEX IS ANNOUNCING AN OPEN COMPETITION, GEARED TOWARDS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND INDEPENDENT ENGINEERING TEAMS, TO DESIGN AND BUILD THE BEST HYPERLOOP POD. TO SUPPORT THIS COMPETITION, SPACEX WILL CONSTRUCT A ONE-MILE TEST TRACK ADJACENT TO OUR HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERS. TEAMS WILL BE ABLE TO TEST THEIR HUMAN-SCALE PODS DURING A COMPETITION WEEKEND AT THE TRACK, CURRENTLY TARGETED FOR JUNE 2016. THE KNOWLEDGE GAINED HERE WILL CONTINUE TO BE OPEN-SOURCED.
BREAK A POD!
SpaceX promo video for the design competition:
