Engineering – Australian Science

Hyperloop – A Reality for Commuters?

Kelly Burnes — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 00:04:21 +0000

Hyperloop concept. Via AP Photo/Tesla Motors

As many of you may have heard, Elon Musk – founder of Tesla Motors, PayPal and SpaceX – released his plans for an extraordinary new mode of transportation, the Hyperloop.

Whether they are ‘his’ plans, and if it is a ‘new’ idea, is up for debate. But we’ll leave it there and focus on the idea itself.

So what is the Hyerloop? Remember those pneumatic tubes that transport capsules stuffed with paperwork in older buildings or drive-thru banks? That’s essentially what it is, a capsule moving through a tube. You would enter this capsule (the claustrophobic might want to find an alternative means of commuting), settle in, and then a force of acceleration would blast you through the tube. The capsules would be pulled down the line by magnetic attraction. Each capsule floats on a cushion of air, like a puck on an air hockey table. To reduce friction, a fan located at the front of the capsule would suck air to the rear in the already nearly air-free tube, creating a turbulence free ride to your destination. The system brings to mind that of Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland.

And will it work? Is it feasible?

Marc Thompson, a professor of electrical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts told ABC News that the core principles behind the Musk design should work, but travelling in pressurized tubes while encased in a pod went beyond core principles.

Ernst Frankel, an emeritus mechanical engineering professor at MIT (who also designed a tube-based high-speed public transit system in the mid ‘90s linking Boston to New York, and some might say where Elon Musk took inspiration for his idea) said the over 700 MPH speed Musk proposes runs risks. While trains have broken the sound barrier, we still don’t run passenger trains above that speed.

But can it actually be built?

Sure, it could be built, but I’m not sure if any of the barriers or obstacles Musk’s system might encounter were considered in this pie-in-the-sky presentation. First, there are the mountains in the Central Valley of California to get over, or under. Second, there are the land use and zoning laws and property rights to consider when building an elaborate system stretching approximately 381 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Where’s it going to go? Third, Musk mentioned that his Hyperloop system would never crash and would be immune to weather. Never say never. Where a system is operated by humans, there will be likely be human error. And the weather? Perhaps not so much a concern, but what about the seismic activity prevalent in the San Andreas Fault? Furthermore, if the system is underground, how exactly will it be solar-powered? Fourth is the cost. The price tag for the system is between $6 and $10 billion. Unrealistic.

Many big cities and suburbs are facing a transportation breakdown. We eventually get to where we need to go, but often not without congestion, increasing pollution and oftentimes a headache. It’s no wonder engineers, scientists and tinkerers are looking for the next big thing in transportation.

Hopefully, some feasible solutions are just around the corner.

Cite this article:
Burnes K (2013-08-21 00:04:21). Hyperloop - A Reality for Commuters?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/hyperloop-a-reality-for-commuters/

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Weekly Science Picks

Kelly Burnes — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:17:20 +0000

Google celebrated International Women’s Day with a Doodle
Source: Google

Women. This is the theme of this edition of Weekly Science Picks. Yesterday, in case you missed it, was International Women’s Day. And it is important to note the achievements of women in careers such as teaching, neuroscience and engineering because women are still in a tightly contested race with the male counterpart. But who doesn’t enjoy a little competition?

The articles selected this week touch on another issue that is being hotly debated in the U.S. as of late – the question of if women can have it all. Many of you have perhaps heard that Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has started down a path of empowering women with her new book released this week, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”, accompanied by the creation of Lean In Circles, a social networking group to help women express issues of dealing with work and family. I’m not going to get into a debate about this right now, except to encourage some discussion of this topic among our readers, female or male, and think how it applies to life in the sciences.

This first pick deals with exactly this topic. It is a selection of women in science from around the globe, tackling incredible and exciting challenges in the lab, and outside of it with families.

From the frontline: 30 something science, What’s being female got to do with anything, ask the scientists who are starting labs and having kids by Heidi Ledford, Anna Petherick, Alison Abbott & Linda Nordling

“I never thought that my life had to be limited to anything, and I want to set that example for my daughter.

Cite this article:
Burnes K (2013-03-10 00:17:20). Weekly Science Picks. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/news/weekly-science-picks-22/
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Interview with lead Mars Curiosity rover driver Matt Heverly

Alan Kerlin — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 05:41:07 +0000

Matt Heverly during testing of rover double "Scarecrow" in the desert near Death Valley. Source: Daily Mail UK

When the Mars Science Laboratory – Curiosity – touches down on Mars today, one of the people there ready to take control of it will be Matt Heverly.

Matt is an engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and has been working on the design and build of Curiosity, as well as being one of the drivers of the lone surviving rover currently on Mars – Opportunity.

And Matt has been appointed by NASA as the lead driver for Curiosity.

Last week I interviewed Matt about this important role, about driving rovers in general, and about the science work that he’ll be helping with.

When Matt came online, he’d quite literally been in the “Mars Yard” conducting some testing with Curiosity’s twin, and he had parked it right behind himself before joining me on Skype. You can see the rover in the background.

(There are a couple of spots where the Skype signal dropped down and a warning dialogue came over the screen. I wanted to get the interview posted prior to the landing day, so no finessing the video editing…)

Interview with Matt Heverly – Mars Curiosity lead rover driver from Alan Kerlin on Vimeo.

There are actually two “twins” of Curiosity used for testing back here on Earth. The one behind Matt is an exact twin is all respects except the plutonium power supply. The other – nicknamed Scarecrow – is a slimmed down version that is designed to weigh as much as Curiosity would in the lower gravity of Mars. It is used to test driving conditions. The following video shows you Scarecrow in action in the Mars Yard:

We also talked about Athlete – a rover design originally destined for the Moon. Check this video of Athlete busting some moves:

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