Illustration: Ashley Goodall
Can you imagine getting from Sydney to Melbourne in 45 minutes? It will still be a dream for a couple more years, but not forever.An enterprising man named Elon Musk, who I'm sure you've heard of, designed something which again, I'm sure you've heard of. The Hyperloop; a vacuum tube that levitating pods can shoot through at close to the speed of sound.*Elon Musk didn't patent the design, which was a very nice gesture, and now the world is locked in a Hyperloop race.Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, both startups who've raised millions in venture capital, are widely considered the frontrunners. But when we're talking about this technology, "getting close" to turning it into a reality can mean a lot of things.Elon Musk has only endorsed one Hyperloop team from the southern hemisphere: Australia's VicHyper. They don't have the resources or capital of companies like Hyperloop One, but they're our favourite for obvious reasons. We talked to Zachary McClelland, Project Leader of VicHyper, to get more of an idea about how close we really are to a form of transport that would revolutionise our lives.How does this thing work?
It sounds really sci-fi, but when you get to the crux of it, they're quite simple principles. The Hyperloop is a large tube network that you hold at a vacuum—or a near vacuum. And in there, you suspend pods, your vehicle, which can carry cargo or people at the speed of sound.How can they go so fast?
Planes, trains, and high speed cars are all slowed down by drag, by wind. That creates a lot of resistance, so we suck all the air out and eliminate that.Can I actually go that fast without my organs getting messed up?
The only thing that affects the body is how fast you get to speed, or how fast you come back from speed. What we want to do is accelerate these vehicles up to the speed of sound in the same way a plane would, so you really won't feel much at all. Once we're there, we'd just cruise along pretty gradually. That's the beauty of the tube: we control that environment so much.The big question: how far away are we from an operational Hyperloop system in Australia?
Last year, I would've told you a just a couple years. But we were just in America, competing in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition [a summit for student teams from around the world], and we encountered some problems that you wouldn't expect. I still wouldn't say more than five to ten years, though.
Yeah, it is. Elon Musk is pretty much a god to any engineering student, so when he came out with the idea, every single person I knew was like, "We've got to be involved." Who wouldn't want to try to invent a whole new form of transportation?It seems perfect for Australia—we're so damn spread out. What's your ideal route?
Melbourne to Sydney is the best place in the world for a Hyperloop. Steve Davis, [SpaceX's director of advanced projects] told us he was was excited about the Hyperloop's prospects in Australia. [Hyperloop One's vice-president Alan James is also interested in testing in Australia]. It's the third busiest air corridor in the world, but there's not much in the way on the ground. Really only small towns, which is ideal because the Hyperloop route will need to be quite straight. It would be awesome: Sydney to Melbourne in 45 minutes.That could transform entire economies. The employment marketplace would open right up.
Yeah, you could live in Albury and order a coffee, and it would still be warm by the time you got to work in Melbourne. We envision having multiple stops along the way, so those smaller cities would become smart cities.If we think forward to rollout, and making this as real as our trains, I feel kinda sceptical. Brand new public infrastructure project are notoriously difficult to get bipartisan support for. Would it be a private service, like the SkyBus in Melbourne?
You'd definitely want to do a private-public partnership, because you're looking at a predicted cost of $60-80 billion. I think it would be like the PTV, a service run by the government and a private sector company. That said, that's a lot further down the line. But it's gonna happen. That's what I want people to know. It's definitely going to happen.Zachary McClelland is speaking at PauseFest, which runs from 8-10 February in Melbourne. Buy tickets here
Advertisement
It sounds really sci-fi, but when you get to the crux of it, they're quite simple principles. The Hyperloop is a large tube network that you hold at a vacuum—or a near vacuum. And in there, you suspend pods, your vehicle, which can carry cargo or people at the speed of sound.How can they go so fast?
Planes, trains, and high speed cars are all slowed down by drag, by wind. That creates a lot of resistance, so we suck all the air out and eliminate that.Can I actually go that fast without my organs getting messed up?
The only thing that affects the body is how fast you get to speed, or how fast you come back from speed. What we want to do is accelerate these vehicles up to the speed of sound in the same way a plane would, so you really won't feel much at all. Once we're there, we'd just cruise along pretty gradually. That's the beauty of the tube: we control that environment so much.
Advertisement
Last year, I would've told you a just a couple years. But we were just in America, competing in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition [a summit for student teams from around the world], and we encountered some problems that you wouldn't expect. I still wouldn't say more than five to ten years, though.
So VicHyper is just a team of students? It's pretty incredible that anyone can have a go at this technology."Elon Musk is pretty much a god to any engineering student"
Yeah, it is. Elon Musk is pretty much a god to any engineering student, so when he came out with the idea, every single person I knew was like, "We've got to be involved." Who wouldn't want to try to invent a whole new form of transportation?It seems perfect for Australia—we're so damn spread out. What's your ideal route?
Melbourne to Sydney is the best place in the world for a Hyperloop. Steve Davis, [SpaceX's director of advanced projects] told us he was was excited about the Hyperloop's prospects in Australia. [Hyperloop One's vice-president Alan James is also interested in testing in Australia]. It's the third busiest air corridor in the world, but there's not much in the way on the ground. Really only small towns, which is ideal because the Hyperloop route will need to be quite straight. It would be awesome: Sydney to Melbourne in 45 minutes.That could transform entire economies. The employment marketplace would open right up.
Yeah, you could live in Albury and order a coffee, and it would still be warm by the time you got to work in Melbourne. We envision having multiple stops along the way, so those smaller cities would become smart cities.If we think forward to rollout, and making this as real as our trains, I feel kinda sceptical. Brand new public infrastructure project are notoriously difficult to get bipartisan support for. Would it be a private service, like the SkyBus in Melbourne?
You'd definitely want to do a private-public partnership, because you're looking at a predicted cost of $60-80 billion. I think it would be like the PTV, a service run by the government and a private sector company. That said, that's a lot further down the line. But it's gonna happen. That's what I want people to know. It's definitely going to happen.Zachary McClelland is speaking at PauseFest, which runs from 8-10 February in Melbourne. Buy tickets here