SpaceX To Build New Hyperloop Vacuum Tunnel In 2020

Following the completion of the latest Hyperloop Pod Competition, SpaceX announced its plans to build a new vacuum tunnel that will be used in 2020. Aside from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s other venture The Boring Company could also step in for the construction of the tunnel.

The recent Hyperloop Pod Competition is the fourth one that was hosted by SpaceX. The contest awards teams that are able to build a prototype transport vehicle that’s capable of reaching extreme speeds. The teams’ entries are tested through a vacuum tunnel.

In the recent event, Team TUM from Germany’s Technical University of Munich won the competition after achieving a record-breaking speed of 288 miles per hour.

Following the event, Musk announced via Twitter that a new vacuum tunnel will be built for the next contest, which is scheduled to happen sometime in 2020. Since the winner of the recent competition was able to set a new speed record, it seems Musk plans to make the next event a bit trickier through an intimidating tunnel.

Unlike previous competitions, which used a vacuum tunnel that’s about 1.6 kilometers long, Musk plans to create a new one that will span 10 kilometers in length. Aside from this, the new tunnel will not be straight. Instead, it will follow a curved track, according to The Verge.

The construction of the new tunnel will most likely be handled by SpaceX and The Boring Company. It is not yet clear if Musk’s other projects such as Tesla will be involved in its development.

The tunnel’s proposed length and shape will certainly have a dramatic effect on the capabilities of next year’s entries. Hopefully, they will have enough time to prepare for Musk’s tunnel in order to set a new speed record.

The Hyperloop Pod Competition was founded as part of an effort for the advancement of Hyperloop, a proposed mode of transportation that would travel on a closed track that’s free of air resistance or friction.

The concept of the Hyperloop was first used to describe a design concept released by Tesla and SpaceX known as a vactrain, which is a high-speed train that uses magnetic levitation to travel along vacuum tubes or tunnels.