Construction workers are hard at it over at the SpaceX’s headquarters currently as they are in the midst of building their very own Hyperloop test track. The Los Angeles based track will be 1 mile long, have a diameter of 6ft., and will also have the ability to create a 99.8% vacuum environment. It is being constructed as part of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Competition that began last January and feature around two dozen teams of students and engineers competing for the top prize.
To allow for individuality in design and function, the teams will be able to select the level of the tube’s operating pressure from between 0.02 psi (equates to around 99.8% vacuum) to 14.7 psi (the pressure at sea level). SpaceX confirms that could take around 15-30 minutes to depressurize the pods to 0.02 psi.
The SpaceX competition is due to run until the weekend of 27-29th January 2017 when finalists will be expected to showcase their designs, so the track must be completed before then. Another company that is also on track with their hyperloop testing is Hyperloop One. Unrelated to SpaceX, this company has also been working on their track and are hoping to be finished around the same time. Although Hyperloop One’s test track is a full-scale model and SpaceX’s example is a mere 6ft in diameter, they will still both have the same near-vacuum capacity and are both perfect for testing this technology that is fast approaching.
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