SpaceX Hyperloop Competition Scheduled for August
SpaceX has scheduled another Hyperloop competition for August 25, 26 and 27 at its test track in Hawthorne, California.
The Competition Weekend II will be another test of Hyperloop pods built by engineering students and others. The goal of this competition will be a simple one obtaining maximum speed.
The competition will use the Hyperloop Test Track at SpaceX’s headquarters. That track is a one mile long tube that is six feet in diameter. It is one of two working Hyperloops in the world, the other is the full scale test facility or DevLoop that Hyperloop One is now testing in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is the second such test, the first in January involved 27 teams and was won by Deflt University of Technology from the Netherlands. Teams from all over the world have signed up for the contest, a SpaceX press release stated.
A few of the schools involved in the contest include the Technical University of Munich, Virginia Tech, the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the University of California at Irvine, the Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Edinburgh, the Colorado School of Mines, Princeton, Binghamton University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Northern Arizona University, Thunderbird School Global Management, University of Applied Sciences-Emden-Lear, University of Oldenberg, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Keio University, BITS Pilani, Purdue Universat Politecana de Valencia, and Northwestern University.
Hyperloop Testing Heats Up
Strangely enough several teams that took part in the January test, including one from MIT are not on this list. That might mean they have dropped out or are now working with Hyperloop One.
More teams will probably join by the time the competition is held. Interestingly enough SpaceX is trying to distance itself from the two commercial Hyperloop ventures, Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.
It added these words to its website: “Note: This competition is a SpaceX event. SpaceX has no affiliation with any Hyperloop companies, including, but not limited to, those frequently referenced by the media.”
If this is successful it might prove the claims about Hyperloop’s speed. Hyperloop One is also planning major testing of its tech in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The next big Hyperloop milestone will be the hauling of actual human passengers which will probably take place on Hyperloop One’s Devloop.
