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Would Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop transportation system work?

Yesterday, entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk unveiled his plans for a new super-fast mass transportation system, called Hyperloop, which he says will make the trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco in just thirty minutes, but would such a system actually work?

Hyperloop is an ambitious plan to build an above-ground tube system linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, that would run sealed capsules between the two cities, carrying up to 28 passengers each (and possibly up to three full-sized cars as well), at speeds of up to 1,220 kilometres per hour. These capsules would leave every 2 minutes (possibly faster in peak periods), thus transporting up to 840 people per hour.

[ Related: Elon Musk reveals his ultra-fast ‘Hyperloop’ transportation system ]

Is this possible, though?

Rather than using vacuum tubes and magnetic levitation, like some other projects — like Japan's new system and the Evacuated Tube Transportation Technology project (ET3) — Musk's design takes a step back from these difficult and expensive ideas. He plans on having tubes at a pressure roughly the same as what aircraft experience at 15,000 feet, and having the passenger capsules ride on a cushion of air. That may seem contradictory, but the way he has it planned — with high pressure air being pumped directly between the capsule and the tunnel floor from an on-board source — it may actually work out.

As for propulsion, each capsule is designed to work a bit like a jet engine, with a turbine fan sucking in air at the front and expelling it out the back, and they'll be accelerated out of the tube stations by magnets, similar to how a rail-gun fires a projectile.

Getting the capsule off the floor and getting it moving is only part of the problem, though. The tunnels are another consideration.

"You have to build a track or tunnel that's very straight," said Dr. James Powell, co-inventor of the Superconducting Maglev transportation systems, according to LiveScience. "At that speed, the track has to be straight and flat, to avoid bumpiness. When you're going 600 miles per hour, you can't really go around curves, and you'd have to be very flat, because without causing excessive G-forces, you probably wouldn't be able to adjust to changing elevations rapidly."

Musk has that planned out too, though. He has the entire route between Los Angeles and San Francisco plotted, including all the 'bend radii' of the curves, showing that passengers would be guaranteed a smooth ride.

Also, with design considerations like reinforced pylons expandable joints between tunnel sections and automatic braking systems, passengers would be protected in case of an earthquake.

This system wouldn't be limited to just between Los Angeles and San Francisco, though. As long as you have access to a straight-line route between two cities, this could easily work as a super-fast transport between those destinations. In fact, this would work even better for cities that are on more stable ground and aren't in mountainous areas. Calgary and Edmonton. Regina and Saskatoon. Toronto and Montreal. These are all great examples. You could, conceivably, build a Hyperloop between Calgary and Halifax, allowing passengers to travel between them in just under four hours!

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So, it seems as though Musk really has come up with a workable idea here. Also, if there are any problems that can be found with it, he's accounted for that too. This plan, which you can read in its entirety here, is simply Musk'a 'alpha design'. He's counting on people to read it over and try to poke holes in the idea, so that it can be refined.

If you have any ideas for him on this, you can comment on his blog, or talk to him on Facebook.

(Image courtesy: Elon Musk)

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