MADISON, Wis. (AP) - University of Wisconsin-Madison students are putting the final touches on a high-tech metal pod designed to shoot a passenger through networks of pneumatic tubes at 270 mph.
The 10-foot-long, 6-foot-tall, 600-pound decal-emblazoned capsule that went on public display at the College of Engineering last week was made to traverse a “Hyperloop” system - a fantastical mode of transportation in which people and freight would navigate vacuum-sealed tunnels at super-fast speeds, The Capital Times (https://bit.ly/2ta4KJe ) reported.
By participating in a global hyperloop engineering competition, the Badgerloop team hopes to take the Hyperloop fantasy a step closer to reality. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, who first outlined his vision for Hyperloop travel in 2013, announced the contest in 2015. The challenge he issued to teams of university students and amateur engineers was to make a pod that could travel along a one-mile stretch of track that his aeronautics company, SpaceX, would build in Los Angeles County.
Badgerloop already schlepped an early prototype to the track in January for the first phase of the contest. There, they landed an award for “most innovative pod.” However, the team wasn’t able to actually test out its creation after experiencing an electrical failure.
“Of course, it was a little disappointing,” said the team’s structural design lead and UW junior Chris Rushmore. “But I wouldn’t give that whole experience up for anything.”
Now, the team is gearing up for the final leg of the competition, for which they’ll return to California this August. Previously, the team had been judged on a variety of criteria, from passenger comfort to how well the team worked together.
“It was a well-rounded rubric,” said Badgerloop team member Noah Pulvermacher. “But now, the only criteria is speed.”
That’s why this time around, the pod really does look like a pod. While their earlier prototype was an angular Batmobile-like vehicle, the new model has been majorly scaled down into a smooth and aerodynamic bullet. Gone are the Halbach wheels - the electrodynamic array that helped the first pod levitate, and that helped the team stand out early in the competition. The magnets, said Pulvermacher, added far too much weight. In its place are are high-pressure cold-gas thrusters, a form of rocket propulsion similar to what gets deployed on spaceships.
The group of about 210 students has been hard at work to finalize the new design. For the first phase, they had 18 months to prepare. This time, they have eight - meaning that Badgerloop is in a timecrunch. Many of the team’s members have poured all the free time they have into the project while maintaining full academic course loads.
“I gotta say my wife is not too happy,” chuckled Rushmore.
Pulvermacher and Rushmore agree that come August, the work will have been worth it. Besides looking great on resumes, working on Badgerloop has been fun.
They’re certainly not in it for the money: No prize for winning the competition has as of yet been announced by SpaceX.
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Information from: The Capital Times, https://www.madison.com/tct
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