Hyperloop's 2017: The Biggest Step To Begin A Faster Future

Technology is, at its heart, a race to make the world larger and smaller. Larger in terms of our knowledge, smaller in terms of how easy it is to acquire said knowledge or move from place to place. Inventions such as the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, the internet are all things that have increased man's knowledge. As our knowledge has increased, we're aware there's more to do and more to see and so as the world shrunk our time become more precious. From bicycles to trains and from cars to planes we're now in a constant evolution to go farther and faster.

And whilst the scramjet engine aims to be the power behind the next evolution of air travel the Hyperloop is hoping to be the next evolution of the train.

A high-speed travel system, the idea of the Hyperloop is not exactly a new one. However in the last five years work begun by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Telsa companies has seen the Hyperloop become a (potentially) viable concept. In layman's terms a train/car/carriage is elevated from the ground via magnets. It is then propelled forward through a sealed tube. The interior of the tubes themselves contain no air, or as close to that as possible. The greatest restriction on speed is friction, hence sports cars employ aerodynamics to be as 'slippery' as possible. In a hyperloop system you're reducing friction, or drag, as much as possible. The result being that you can accelerate faster, and achieve speeds you would not be able to outside of a vacuum.

At least that's the theory.

The technology and the development is somewhat unique in that is being strengthened by the crowd after Musk made the designs open-source, giving it rather unique distinction and we're now at the point where this very weekend (at the time of writing) SpaceX is to host what is essentially trials for the thirty teams who have made it through the initial competition process. Multiple companies are progressing with test tracks, the aforementioned tests are taking place on a mile long track at SpaceX's HQ. In May last year another organisation Hyperloop One managed to send their car from 0 to 110 miles per hour (mph) in just over one second. Such speeds are merely the tip of the iceberg, a fully realised Hyperloop system, of which networks are already being proposed in both the United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) would see speeds of over 1000 kilometers per hour (km/h). In comparison the cruising speed of a Boeing 747, perhaps the most recognisable jumbo jet, is 885 km/h.

No, you WON'T be boarding a Hyperloop this year. However 2017 is set to be the year the concept it proved once and for all - and then? Well, then things will get interesting and many other questions will need to be answered. Technology is one thing, but economically will it work? Musk and others might not even care about the latter. Whatever the case though, 2017 will be the year work truly begins on Hyperloop and soon talk might ever turn to how it could at least come to a city near you and who'd have thought a few years back we'd be closing in on transport similar to that in Futurama?

Not I.