The Hyperloop announcement today at 1:30 PDT.
Elon Musk tweeted- Pulled all nighter working on Hyperloop (as did others). Hopefully not too many mistakes.
I will update this posting as news is released.
Here is the blog posting from Elon Musk at the Tesla Motors blog
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The pdf for the Hyperloop alpha design is here
I have begun extracting the highlights of the design at this link here
The approach that Elon Musk believes would overcome the Kantrowitz limit is to mount an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod that actively transfers high pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel. This is like having a pump in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure.
It would also simultaneously solve another problem, which is how to create a low friction suspension system when traveling at over 700 mph. Wheels don’t work very well at that sort of speed, but a cushion of air does. Air bearings, which use the same basic principle as an air hockey table, have been demonstrated to work at speeds of Mach 1.1 with very low friction. In this case, however, it is the pod that is producing the air cushion, rather than the tube, as it is important to make the tube as low cost and simple as possible.
That then begs the next question of whether a battery can store enough energy to power a fan for the length of the journey with room to spare. Based on our calculations, this is no problem, so long as the energy used to accelerate the pod is not drawn from the battery pack.
This is where the external linear electric motor comes in, which is simply a round induction motor (like the one in the Tesla Model S) rolled flat. This would accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic reboost roughly every 70 miles. The linear electric motor is needed for as little as ~1% of the tube length, so is not particularly costly.
Elon Musk announced his plans on twitter.
Previously Elon Musk has given a brief summary of his vision for the Hyperloop.
Read more »![]()
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Elon Musk tweeted- Pulled all nighter working on Hyperloop (as did others). Hopefully not too many mistakes.
Here is the blog posting from Elon Musk at the Tesla Motors blog
The pdf for the Hyperloop alpha design is here
I have begun extracting the highlights of the design at this link here
The approach that Elon Musk believes would overcome the Kantrowitz limit is to mount an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod that actively transfers high pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel. This is like having a pump in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure.
It would also simultaneously solve another problem, which is how to create a low friction suspension system when traveling at over 700 mph. Wheels don’t work very well at that sort of speed, but a cushion of air does. Air bearings, which use the same basic principle as an air hockey table, have been demonstrated to work at speeds of Mach 1.1 with very low friction. In this case, however, it is the pod that is producing the air cushion, rather than the tube, as it is important to make the tube as low cost and simple as possible.
That then begs the next question of whether a battery can store enough energy to power a fan for the length of the journey with room to spare. Based on our calculations, this is no problem, so long as the energy used to accelerate the pod is not drawn from the battery pack.
This is where the external linear electric motor comes in, which is simply a round induction motor (like the one in the Tesla Model S) rolled flat. This would accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic reboost roughly every 70 miles. The linear electric motor is needed for as little as ~1% of the tube length, so is not particularly costly.
Elon Musk announced his plans on twitter.
Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated.
Previously Elon Musk has given a brief summary of his vision for the Hyperloop.
Read more »
