Pods moving on to the next round will compete at the SpaceX Hyperloop Test Track. It’d consist of a depressurized tube system that could transport passenger pods along a cushion of air at speeds over 700 miles per hour. Interestingly, he went on to mention that space travel to Mars is merely a precursor to fulfilling a much larger vision.
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“I’m mostly excited about talking to industry people about how to improve our design and walking around and talking to other teams about what they’ve done”, said Nick Hemstreet, of Texas A&M’s HyperWhoop team.
“Do we want a future where we are forever confined to one planet until some eventual extinction event, however far in the future that might occur”, Musk says during the interview. But don’t expect him to take time out now from building his companies to prepare for such a flight. Startup Hyperloop Technologies Inc. is slated to begin testing their iteration of the transportation technology this quarter. “You wouldn’t need to take photographs”, he said, with a chuckle. “You want to start off with something that’s the most doable and then expand from there”.
“I don’t know, maybe four or five years from now, maybe going to the Space Station would be nice”.
The top teams will be invited to build their pods and test them at the world’s first Hyperloop Test Track, being built adjacent to SpaceX’s Hawthorne headquarters. During the event, it’s likely Musk reveals more about the testing done with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule (seen above), as well as any advancements made with its Mars Colonial Transporter program.
“We’re trying in general to support the idea and support innovation through technology”, he said. “This is one of the things we’ve been working toward from the beginning”, said Team Captain Matthew Connelly. “We’re trying to be as neutral as possible and just to generally be helpful”.
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Following the weekend, the competition will pick up again in summer 2016. The company built a 50-acre site in Nevada’s Mountain View Industrial Park.
