Elon Musk is out to develop a fifth mode of travel — something “safer, faster, lower cost, more convenient, immune to weather, sustainably self-powering, resistant to earthquakes, and not disruptive to those along the route.” In August 2013, Musk took the lead on development of the Hyperloop. Now he’s released the first photos of development, adding them to his original August 2013 blog post.
In his post, Musk writes, “Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome (someone please do this), the only option for super fast travel is to build over or under the ground that contains a special environment. This is where things get tricky.”
Musk proposes a low-pressure tube where a “Hyperloop” — which looks sort of like a train — could travel at “high subsonic speeds.” The plan is to power the Hyperloop using solar panels that store energy, so it can operate in cloudy weather.
To read more about the physics and detailed technical aspects of the Hyperloop, check out Musk’s post here.
