Hyperloop One showed several photos of the test site under construction of the world's first transport system Hyperloop, which is currently being assembled in the Nevada desert. The Los Angeles startup is only one of several companies that supported the idea of Ilona Mask in making the futuristic system for transporting goods and passengers a reality.
The concept itself is described as the “fifth generation of transport” and proposes passenger and cargo transportation at speeds of up to 1,220 kilometers per hour in closed capsules that will move in a special system of sealed pipes with low pressure. The idea, perhaps, "smacks" of science fiction - and rightly so, you have to admit - but new photos from Nevada suggest that the appearance of the first Hyperloop system remains (we hope) just a short time.
The length of the test site, called DevLoop, is currently only 500 meters. The weight of the structure is more than 1 million kilograms. When its construction is completed in the next few months, the total length of the line will be about 3 kilometers. Despite the fact that in the framework of the first tests of the system people are unlikely to be admitted as passengers, the test site will allow for the first time in practice to find out whether the very idea of Hyperloop will work and whether it can justify such a level of excitement around it that even Russian officials I was eager to build a similar system in our mother country.
For the first time, the concept of the Hyperloop system was proposed by Ilon Mask, the founder and director of Tesla and SpaceX, back in 2012. Later, they also presented a concept document that described how such a transport system could work. According to the original idea, Mask considered the option of building an ultra-high-speed Hyperloop branch between San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, it is currently unknown whether the California Hyperloop will be implemented at all in the near future.
Since Musk initially stated that his idea was completely open to third parties, several companies, including several hundred academic research teams, began to develop technologies for Hyperloop, but Hyperloop One seems to be the leading party at the moment.
The startup conducted the first demonstration of the Hyperloop propulsive system last May. Then, in October of the same year, he presented his plans to build the first passenger system, which the company wants to build in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), paving it between cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The length of the branch will be about 159 kilometers. Usually this distance takes about two hours by car, but according to experts from Hyperloop One, the new Hyperloop transport system will be able to reduce the travel time to just 12 minutes.
The company says that the construction of the pipe in the UAE can be completed by 2020, but before this happens, you first need to demonstrate the large-scale test line DevLoop, which is now being assembled in the Nevada desert. Developers want to make sure that this kind of transport will really be safe even at such promised insane speeds.
That is why all eyes will be on Nevada this year. And if everything goes well, the adaptation of the technology Hyperloop expects a big step forward, because, despite loud promises, many questions about it remain unanswered. In particular, is it really possible to create such a transport system, will it be reliable and safe for this kind of transportation, and how much can all this be done.
Some hints on the cost of such projects are already available. Leaked documents last year to the Network indicated that, at a preliminary cost, the Hyperloop project in the UAE would cost $ 4.8 billion, or more than $ 30 million per kilometer. And yet, if something can convince people that such a futuristic transport system will cost every dollar spent on it from such astronomical sums, this is a successful DevLoop demonstration that promises to be held in a few months.
Maybe Musk and put the concept of the Hyperloop system into the hands of other people, he never abandoned his own dream of connecting cities using ultrafast transport corridors. Last month, the head of SpaceX and Tesla gave a glimpse of a huge drilling rig, which could potentially be used to create underground tunnels to facilitate ground-based traffic to cities like Los Angeles. Ilon even got an idea to build his own tunnel in order to get to his workplace faster, and not get bored in traffic jams. As a joke, this company was dubbed the name of the Boring Company. And to the question on Twitter about whether he plans to combine these two ideas in order to finally produce a real transport revolution, Musk replied: maybe.
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