In recent months we have made you aware of the likes of a wheelchair and ambulances using solar panels to provide power in some capacity. Well, now we have heard of a super train being developed that will be solar powered and should be capable of travelling at extremely fast speeds.
Elon Musk
(image credit: OnInnovation)
The solar powered train called Hyperloop is expected to be capable of travelling at speeds approaching the speed of sound meaning that it could complete a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles totalling about 350 miles in less than 30 minutes. For those of you that were not aware, the speed of sound is actually 768mph.
Elon Musk, 41, who is the extremely wealthy founder of Paypal, is involved in the project. He also founded SpaceX that is involved in the manufacture of rockets that transport items of cargo to the International Space Station. He is also involved in Tesla Motors that manufacture electric cars.
The train could be a mixture of a “railgun” launcher that is electromagnetic, Concorde and an “air hockey table” on which items move around on an air pad. There is not much information available about the super train scheme but it is a possibility that it could be constructed within a pneumatic tube placed underground. Another possibility is that it could involve shooting capsules along tunnels on airwaves.
It is forecast that the cost of this mode of transport has the potential to be less than other forms of transport such as travelling by car, bus or train. The solar panels may be capable of producing more power than the super train would require and it may also be possible to store any generated power enabling the train to operate 24 hours a day without the need to utilise batteries.
We do not doubt that we will be hearing more about this project in the future.
