Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.

Elon Musk, SpaceX Want Your “Warp Speed” Hyperloop Designs

This article is over 9 years old and may contain outdated information

Elon Musk and his company SpaceX are calling on students to submit designs for a passenger vehicle that can travel at supersonic speeds. The Hyperloop edges ever closer to reality.

Elon Musk and SpaceX have formally opened a competition, specifically targeted at university students, to design passenger vehicles for the transport system known as the Hyperloop. Teams that can build their own prototype will get to test it on the world’s first Hyperloop test track, under construction near SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Prizes for the competition, beyond bragging rights, have not been announced. If this contest is anything like current X Prize contests, however, millions of dollars may be on the line.

Elon Musk, also of Tesla Motors, first brought up the idea of the Hyperloop in 2013. It will be, essentially, a tube in which people transit from one urban hub to another in self-contained capsules, at extremely high speeds. If this sounds like something out of Futurama, Musk himself describes it in terms very familiar to fans of science fiction, saying it will transport people at “warp speed,” and that it is a “cross between a Concorde [super-sonic jet], a railgun, and an air hockey table.”

How does stepping into a railgun and being fired from Los Angeles to San Francisco sound to you? More importantly, though – can you design the bullet?

Source: Spacex.com, Allthingsd.com

Recommended Videos

The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.Ā Learn more about our Affiliate Policy