San Fran. to LA in 30 Mins? Elon Musk says its possible

16 Jul, 2013

You probably wouldn’t consider Elon Musk as having a boring, predictable mind. The founder of the commercial space exploration venture SpaceX also founded Paypal, now owned by eBay 

Bloomberg reminds us he’s chairman of SolarCity , a rooftop power producer whose value has increased over fourfold this year. Musk is also CEO of groundbreaking electric vehicle company Tesla Motors.

So it’s not surprising that the technology and business sectors are buzzing with gossip about Musk’s plans to unveil a new mode of public transportation next month — something he calls Hyperloop.

For his part, Musk is being coy about his latest pet project — describing it in a recent interview as a crash-proof and weatherproof “cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.” Hyperloop, he says, will be able to move people across the 350 or so miles between downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco in a half-hour.

The speculation amongst the nerd class as to exactly what Hyperloop might be is rampant.

Science writer and research and development specialist Brian Dodson, who also has a doctorate in physics, recently suggested at Gizmag that Hyperloop could be a pneumatic transport system where “people ride in capsules that travel within the tube at around 1,000 km/h (620 mph), but the air in the tube also moves at that speed, so the capsules move with very little air drag.”

The concept could make air travel obsolete, proclaims Hot Hardware’s Paul Lilly. “Not only that, but tubes could be built underwater for international travel,” he added. “Assuming it proves safe — really, would you want to experience a crash at 4,000 mph? — Hyperloop systems could be the way future generations travel.”

Musk tweeted Monday that he will publish an early Hyperloop design by Aug. 12 — and asked for feedback on his work.

Hyperloop

CNet, meanwhile, reports Musk doesn’t plan to pursue a patent on Hyperloop, and will publish his information as an open source project.

Stay tuned: Aug. 12 could be very, very interesting.

MSN

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