The Hyperloop One system.
On Tuesday, startup Hyperloop One announced that it had signed a deal with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to conduct a number of feasibility studies on potential Hyperloop routes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Earlier this year, the company agreed to develop a Hyperloop cargo offloader at the port and later received $50 million from Dubai's port operator, DP World. These new feasibility studies commissioned by RTD seem aimed at transporting humans as well as cargo, however.
The Hyperloop is a concept advanced in recent years by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Musk’s plans suggested using low-friction tubes to send pods through at 700mph, but the CEO declined to put resources toward building a Hyperloop and offered his ideas to any startup that wanted to attempt to bring it to market. Hyperloop One was one of those startups; another group called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies relies on volunteer work from NASA, SpaceX, Boeing, and Tesla engineers. In addition, 29 research and student groups were recently selected out of a larger group of 129 to show off their designs at a Hyperloop contest sponsored by SpaceX next year.
But Hyperloop One seems to be making inroads faster than others, despite an ongoing and very public feud with some former executives and engineers. It demonstrated its propulsion system in the Nevada desert earlier this year, and yesterday it released a video (seen above) of a “comprehensive concept design” of its version of the high-speed magnetic rail tube network.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment