Gadgetory

oh this is a heavy door okay so what if I told you that there was a mode of transportation that not only promised to leave planes trains and automobiles all in the dust but to do so with extraordinary efficiency and that PE connectivity brought us down to Los Angeles to take a close look at a sponsored prototype built by a ragtag team of reddit engineers rent Rendon ears calling themselves our loop from all over the world it weighs 400 kilograms contains hundreds of sensors and it can freaking hover so our loop started out in much the same way that any online community does as a group of passionate people on reddit that saw that SpaceX was hosting a Hyperloop competition and figured that they could do it better but unlike most online communities with some help from SpaceX and sponsors like tE Connectivity who provided engineering resources sensors wiring and manufacturing space they managed to overcome the geographical and communication barriers that inevitably arise when you've got a team of over a thousand people scattered across dozens of countries and they actually did something and considering that all of these folks are volunteers one of which even quit his job and moved to the u.s. from India for a year what they've done is nothing short of amazing so let's take a closer look at the pod now if you're not already familiar with the Hyperloop concept the first thing you'll probably notice is that there's no obvious external propulsion mechanism like a jet engine or propeller that's because Hyperloop pods aren't expected to be able to propel themselves see this big plate on the back of the pod it's called a pusher plate now in the future pods could be launched down the to that near hypersonic speeds then boosted by linear induction motors essentially making the tube a big railgun or they could use an on board system but for the purposes of the competition that we're attending today this pusher plate is used to give the pot a colossal kick in the ass with a stripped down Tesla and send it whipping down the track but anyone who's ever tried to mimic their dog sticking their head out of a car window can probably guess that the fiberglass nose cone over there isn't going to solve the pods air resistance challenges at over a thousand kilometers per hour where air feels less like a gentle breeze and more like the Boston molasses tsunami of 1919 which is a real thing by the way get up so the proposed solution for now is to run these pods inside a closed tube that's being held at a near vacuum now the clever among you have probably also noticed that these wheels are totally unsuitable for speed of sound travel that's because they are only for manual maneuvering of the pod and emergencies these babies right here are what actually keep the pods but from getting as raw as minded on a dried-up water slide that one time there are eight of what the team affectionately refers to as hover engines each of them is made up of freaking strong magnets it's a scientific term right there arranged in what's called a hull back array to augment the strength of the magnetic field of the individual magnets so when they start spinning over an electrically conductive surface they actually create enough lift to keep this 400 kilogram pod levitating above the track then there are also passive magnets on the bottom for additional lift once the pod gets up to full speed and while we're on the topic of magnets they power the brakes to the pod uses two 28-inch haulback arrays that are configured such that they create drag as they approach a conductive surface without making contact so that means no biannual brake pad replacements sorry Napa and this is really cool too while any pod that would hope to be used in a working Hyperloop would need to levitate to achieve the required efficiency our loops design is unique in that it's active hover engines allow it to levitate over any conductive surface not just inside of a specialized tube and furthermore their gimbal mounting system lets them be used for thrust in addition to just lift however this crazy levitation is super power-hungry so much so that the team had to do sign and custom manufactured two of these 2000 amp lithium polymer battery packs these things are so powerful that a wrench accidentally dropped inside would essentially weld itself to the copper busbars then they crammed both of them into the pod for redundancy which is where tE Connectivity comes in through the transmission of power and data signals now let's talk cooling the heat generated by the various mechanical and electrical systems in the pod many of which you can actually see when we pop the hood is monitored by over 600 thermal sensors but monitoring is not enough you got to get rid of it and because there will be virtually no air in the tube the solution is not as simple as just slapping a radiator to the front of the pod our loops answer this liquid carbon dioxide cooling system so at the end of each of these little brass fittings is a super small hole only thirteen and a half thousands of an inch that when activated dispenses four grams of liquid co2 per second when that goes from the high pressure holding tank to the low pressure near vacuum environment the liquid co2 vaporizes removing heaps of heat in the process how much exactly well let's just say that if you opened it up over a glowing-hot toaster you'd be left with a block of dry ice to say that there are still a lot of engineering manufacturing security cost and logistical problems for Hyperloop believers to solve would be an understatement but the work being done here and the reason for sponsors like tE Connectivity to get involved is not necessarily about building a working Hyperloop n pod tomorrow it's about developing technologies that may end up being deployed in completely different ways that we haven't even imagined yet and if we succeed in building a system that lets commuters travel from San Francisco to LA and as little as 35 minutes with no strip search from your friendly local say officer well then that's just icing so thanks for watching guys if you dislike this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit the like button get subscribed maybe consider checking out te comm slash our loop where you can watch a five-part webisode documentary about the our loop team and learn about their awesome virtual collaboration model