SpaceX has Awarded MIT Team The design Contest for the Hyperloop

The Hyperloop is progressing. In this case it is Elon Musk's SpaceX financed Loop.The MIT grad students won out against a 100 other teams. This design will go into a proto-type in Hawthorne California. The proposed system would use pods traveling in tubes in a vacuum at 750 MPH from Houston to Dallas, or San Francisco to LA. The design is an elevated design above the ground and MIT design has been reported as using magnets. There are now several plans in place and all designed in the US. We will see which one or many work out. This certainly competes with a high speed rail in California which will cost billions. We are still unsure if the Hyperloop is really feasible as it will take a person at 750MPH. Some design include carrying vehicles. Hyperloop people say a person will not realize they are going 750 MPH, but how can it turn? Critics say a person can handle a change even gradual turns or rising and falling without getting sick. If that is the case then a Hyperloop would have to be at the same level from San Francisco to LA. It just seems impossible to be at say 50 feet up all the way since California is not flat. We will see where this goes.

The Hyperloop Plan Potentially from San Francisco To Los Angeles is Still in the Loop

Elon Mush forwarded a plan that would replace the Cal High Speed Rail. In this new version the plan would be to move vehicles and people 700 mile per house via a tube system above of below ground. UCLA Students have taken up the challenge with funding from JumpStartFund a crowd funding organization. Their main objective is to bring the Hyperloop from concept to reality, and then see which state or country would like to incorporate it in their plans. This may or may not be California. The UCLA/JumpStartFund concept is to have "bubbles" stacked on top of each other going opposite directions on air compressors so as to maintain the low pressure. The cost is projected to be $6 to $10 billion which can undertake a 400 mile stretch. They are in the feasibility phase and they are trying to prove it out. They think this can be done within a decade. The proposed price tag is much much less than the CalHighSpeed Rail plan which is in the 10’s of billions. The Rail plan is underway and is currently partially funded, and partially planned. If the Hyperloop feasibility study proves out can it leap frog the Train? There is a lot of political and financial capital behind the train, and no politician is backing the Hyperloop, but if it can be done for 1/10th the cost of the rail and it incorporates vehicles instead of just people then I think the Loop should win out. Think about it if you could drive your car into a tube that will get you from LA to San Francisco in 45 minutes then it will change the entire means of human long hall transportation. How about Sacramento to San Francisco in 10 minutes? You could live in low priced housing in Sacramento and work in the Bay Area. They could run it on or above the current rail lines. A big thing Americans embrace is freedom of transportation. You can build multiple car pool lanes, but most people still drive alone, because they have to or want to. We think if this can be a proven alternative to the CalHighSpeedRail then the rail is doomed, even though it is already underway. This innovation will even effect short hall flights that Southwest Airlines is famous for.