The new means of transport by Tesla founder Elon Musk seems insane to: Passengers should take place in capsules that shoot at supersonic speed through an evacuated tube. That sounds like science fiction, but is almost a reality
Musk drums for the last few months engineers from around the world who accept the challenges -. About to construct the matching passenger capsules or the technology to develop, which provides a vacuum in the tube.
software simulates conditions in Hyperloop system
When it comes to vacuum Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum has made the race. The Swiss company is currently looking for the right combination of vacuum pumps. They are inside the tube the air resistance against the transport capsule and thus reduce the overall energy requirements of the system.
“Our unique simulation software Pascal we can interpret the entire Hyperloop system in detail and thus the required vacuum equipment Calculate for optimum operation, “explains Carl Brock Meyer, Head of Development at Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum. The print area lies probably between 100 mbar and 1 mbar
Construction of Hyperloop test track begins in 2016
Time is short:. 2016 will Elon Musks company SpaceX with the Construction of the now specified with 8 km of Hyperloop test track in Quay Valley Californian start. Until then, the vacuum technology must be fit
The time pressure seems for Oerlikon but to be a problem. “The challenge, something fundamentally to create something new, which has revolutionized the traditional means of transport, is of course a very special motivation” says Oerlikon CEO Martin Füllenbach.
to passengers from 2018 arrive Überschallzug
From 2018 to then the first people go on trips. However, that requires some courage. You must namely take in the 1.35 m wide and 1.10 m high capsule as in a deck chair. Then the door closes and the journey begins. Compressed air creates an air cushion under the runners of the capsule on which it approximately 1235 km / h as a pneumatic tube shoots through the vacuum tube. For the forward movement makes magnetic levitation technology, energy supply solar panels on the driving tube
Musk wants to create with Hyperloop the fastest transport link between the California cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The capsules are 600 km long distance in less than 30 cover minutes. By plane it takes an hour and 30 minutes. Capsules of Überschallzugs should depart every few seconds and carry 840 passengers per hour.
Hyperloop calling critics of the plan
But Hyperloop calls critics on the scene: “I see nothing that violated fundamental laws of physics,” says John Hansmann, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But: “It would be enormously expensive. And there are a large number of technical challenges, such as the question of how much energy the system requires. “
Even more critical Markus Hecht from the Technical University of Berlin. In a report by Spiegel Online, he refers to the physical problem of waste heat, which in an empty pumped tube is hardly solvable. Also evacuations were problematic: “The rescue of passengers in an emergency would be extremely difficult.”
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