By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
SpaceX revealed Monday that it is building a test track for the Hyperloop, a concept for ultra-fast ground transport the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, unveiled in 2013.
The track, which will measure 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) long, will be built adjacent to SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Construction is expected to be completed within a year.
Alongside the announcement regarding the prototype track, SpaceX also launched a competition to design passenger vehicles, or “pods”, to be tested at the company’s Hyperloop facility. The competition is open to university students or teams of engineers. The tests are currently scheduled for June 2016. While the prototypes will be designed to transport passengers, no human test subjects will be in the pods during the competition.
Musk first revealed his concept of the Hyperloop in 2013 as a way to disrupt land travel. Musk claimed the Hyperloop would involve a system of pneumatic tubes shooting passenger pods from one location to another. These pods, Musk claimed, could reach speeds of 1,220 kilometers per hour (760 mph) and a trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles would take merely 35 minutes—and cost just $40 roundtrip.
Musk claimed he didn’t have the power to work on the Hyperloop idea in earnest because of his duties as chief executive of SpaceX and luxury electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. In his absence, several start-ups have sprung up, including one with plans to build a large test track in central California.
“We are excited that a handful of private companies have chosen to pursue this effort," SpaceX noted in a statement. "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.”
With the announcement, SpaceX also launched a website and official Twitter handle.
