Hyperloop pod competition
The Hyperloop Pod Competition was an annual competition sponsored by SpaceX from 2015 to 2019 in which a number of student and non-student teams participated to design—and for some teams, build—a subscale prototype transport vehicle in order to demonstrate technical feasibility of various aspects of the Hyperloop concept.
[13] The outline of the original Hyperloop concept was made public in August 2013 by the release of a preliminary—or alpha level—design document by Elon Musk, with substantial design assistance from an informal group of engineers at both Tesla Motors and SpaceX who worked on the conceptual foundation and modelling of Hyperloop.
The preliminary design called for a 2.3–3.4 m-diameter (90–132 in) steel tube, operating in partial vacuum (nearly airless), utilizing pressurized vehicle "pods" to carry passengers or cargo that would ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors.
[17] The alpha design included a notional route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, paralleling the Interstate 5 corridor for most of its length, so that preliminary economic analysis might be done on the concept.
[18] Responses to the design paper release included: "a flash of brilliance" and "hypercool"[19] to "nothing new here"[17] to "hype", "another science-fiction dream," and "completely impractical.
"[20] Within days of the 2013 announcement, discussions concluded that building a successful Hyperloop subscale demonstration project could reduce the political impediments while improving cost estimates; Musk suggested that he could choose to become personally involved in building a demonstration prototype of the Hyperloop concept, including funding the development effort.
[27] Formal Intent to Compete submissions were due 15 September 2015 with SpaceX intending to release the detailed tube and technical specification by October 2015[28] but became available somewhat later.
[29] SpaceX announced in January 2016 that they had engaged a Los Angeles-based, Fortune-500, engineering design and construction firm AECOM, to build the Hyperloop Test Track.
[30] At a 29–30 January 2016 meeting at Texas A&M University, hosted by the College of Engineering, the designs from the approximately 120 worldwide teams were reviewed and judged.
[33] Competition teams visited the track for fit checks and vacuum/track tests during the first week of November, and a video was released.
[37]: 26:50 The fourth year of competition was announced for the northern hemisphere summer of 2019,[38] and the event was run 21 July 2019.
[23][30] Test pods may not carry any human or animal, and are to be used solely to develop new technologies and subsystems for effecting higher-velocity tube transport systems.
[10][31] The SpaceX Hyperloop test track — or Hypertube[7] — was designed in 2015 and was constructed in 2016, reaching its full length of one mile by October 2016.
Three explicit suspension types were called out in the year 1 competition rules: wheels, air bearings, and magnetic levitation.
The test track specifications as of January 2016[update] include:[7] Three variations of exterior design are currently being explored for vehicle pods.
[46] The University of Colorado, Denver's team incorporated a removable capsule that allows it to be exchanged for a cargo hold or passenger space.
[47] The teams that advanced to the prototype hardware build stage for 2016 included representatives from four continents and at least six countries.
[43] The team says with air pressure at 140 Pascals, the pod could accelerate at 2.4 G and have 2 Newton aerodynamic drag when traveling at 110 m/s.
Each pod in the competition needed to progress through ten sequential tests, only the last of which would be a vacuum-environment speed run in the mile-long Hypertube.
[107] Just three of the competition pods successfully completed the nine tests that enabled them to make a vacuumized tube run on 29 January.
"[111][112] While approximately 24 teams competed, only the top three were selected to make test runs on SpaceX's HyperTube, a 1.25-kilometer track located at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Several teams encountered difficulties during the week, including fried circuit boards and overheated batteries.
[118] Germany's WARR Hyperloop were the defending champions, and beat their own record with a top speed of 457 km/h (284 mph) during their run.
The other top competitors for the main competition include the University of Washington Hyperloop team and Ireland's ÉirLoop.
[citation needed] Additionally, pods were designed and tested to propel themselves within 100 feet of the far end of the tube before stopping.
Teams eligible to perform a full vacuum run in the tube are selected based on the results of such tests.
[123] According to TUM Hyperloop's Instagram page, the cause of the damage was due to the derailment of one of their propulsion modules, "most likely because of a misalignment of the rail segments.
The biggest impact occurred when one of the screws that hold the rail to the ground hit one of our brakes, ripping apart its bottom".
"[3] Applications were received from 400 potential participants but a technical design review reduced the number to 12 teams that were invited to Las Vegas to demonstrate their engineering solution to more rapid automated boring of a small-diameter tunnel.
[3] A worldwide, college-level hyperloop competition is scheduled to take place in India in February 2025 at the Discovery Campus of Thaiyur, IIT Madras.
