April 13, 2022 4:40 pm EST Hyperloop TT Getting from place to place has always been a problem, and problems tend to inspire innovation. Cars, trains, planes, and even the humble boat exist because someone needed a better way of getting somewhere else. So what does the future hold?Just over the horizon is the hyperloop, which could be a revolution in land-based transport. The idea, and most of the science behind it, has been around for a long time — but it gained steam after Elon Musk started talking about his vision for a hyperloop. Advertisement Almost ten years later, we still don't have a hyperloop connecting two of the world's cities. But during that time, progress has been made — alongside a few more outlandish claims. So could you soon be traveling from LA to San Francisco in just over half an hour? Could you get from New York to Beijing in two hours? Can the power grid even support something like a hyperloop? Let's take an in-depth look at where the hyperloop is now. Musk initially made some huge claims Vcg/Getty Images Elon Musk getting overly optimistic about a big idea is nothing new — and he did the same with the hyperloop concept in 2012. Musk claimed a 350-mile-long hyperloop linking Los Angeles to San Francisco could be completed in a decade and would cost under $6 billion. It would do a better job than California's proposed high-speed rail network at a fraction of the cost. Advertisement Some of the claims Musk made were still seemingly outlandish but more rooted in reality. The Tesla CEO said the hypothetical LA to San Francisco loop would hit speeds of 750 MPH and transport 7.4 million people per year in each direction. HyperloopTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn has echoed these claims. Ahlborn believes hyperloop capsules can achieve near-sonic speeds, though they would initially be running at a slower pace than their maximum. Ahlborn also foresees a hyperloop capsule departing as often as once every 45 seconds. Unfortunately, the speed predictions did not stop at a reasonable point. Musk went on to claim a hyperloop could transport someone from New York to LA in 45 minutes and from New York to Beijing in two hours. If it were even possible, the task would require a system thousands of miles long that spans both a continent and the world's largest body of water. Musk predicts the average cost of an LA to San Francisco Hyperloop journey will be $20. In 2021, $20 was equivalent to the price of a bus journey between the two cities, and a third of the cost of a plane or train (via Tripsavvy) Advertisement Parts of the technology were patented over a century ago Steve Allen/Shutterstock Hyperloop relies on the Maglev system, which the world's fastest trains have been using to get around for decades. Maglev uses powerful electromagnets to lift the train into the air and create a frictionless "track" to travel on. The electromagnets also propel the train forward and slow it down when necessary. The Department of Energy says the maximum speed of a Maglev train is 375 MPH. While trains have not reached this speed in practice, they have gotten incredibly close. Advertisement Japan's bullet train is probably the most famous use of the technology and has recorded speeds of 374 MPH — but the first Maglev train was far less impressive. The first commercial Maglev train appeared in Birmingham, England, during the 1980s. The Birmingham Maglev shuttled people between the city's airport and central train station at a far less impressive 26 MPH. The idea of combining magnets and train travel goes back to the early 1900s when several patents were filed based on the scientific principles Maglev now operates on. Rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert Goddard and French electrician Emile Bachelet are two of the more famous Maglev pioneers. A low-pressure tube takes speeds to the next level Virgin Hyperloop Despite the aerodynamic design, wind resistance is still a limiting factor in the speeds Maglev can achieve. Aerodynamic drag, or the force of the air pushing against an object traveling at speed, affects every vehicle on earth. Engineers design cars and fast trains to be "aerodynamic" to limit the amount of drag. Drag is more of a factor at sea level where the air is thicker, and planes traveling thousands of feet in the air where the atmosphere is thinner experience less drag. Advertisement Although a full vacuum would offer no air resistance and could see a Hyperloop reaching the fastest possible speeds, even Elon Musk is aware of the difficulty in creating and maintaining one. Regarding vacuums, Tesla's white paper states that: "The problem with this approach is that it is tough to maintain a near-vacuum in a room, let alone 700 miles (round trip) of tube with dozens of station gateways and thousands of pods entering and exiting every day." Instead, Tesla proposes a partial vacuum which would create an air pressure similar to an aircraft traveling at an altitude of 150,000 feet. Other limits come with partial vacuums Hyperloop TT Creating a partial vacuum in a tube leads to another problem that engineers must overcome. The Kantrowitz Limit, a gas dynamics principle discovered by Arthur Kantrowitz, could see the hyperloop hitting a literal wall of air. Musk describes the limit by likening a capsule traveling in a tube with a partial vacuum will act to the plunger in a syringe—compressing what little air there is until the air gets denser and slows the capsule. Over a short distance, there may not be enough air compression to make a difference, but the Kantrowitz Limit is a significant problem over the distances planned for the hyperloop. Advertisement The Tesla white paper describes the traditional ways around the Kantrowitz limit as going very slowly, going very quickly, and building a much larger tunnel than the capsule traveling down it. All of which are impractical. The most practical solution Tesla has come up with is an air compression system that will move air from in front of the capsule to behind it. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics suggested Tesla was correct and a compressor could make a difference. Musk's tunneling company could play a huge part Postmodern Studio/Shutterstock Elon Musk launched a tunneling company in 2016, which could play a large part in the Hyperloop's implementation. The Boring Company is centered around digging transportation and freight tunnels to help relieve congestion in larger cities. It could also play a massive part in both hyperloop's construction and keeping costs down. Advertisement Musk claims his company will be able to dig tunnels for as little as $10 million to $15 million per mile—a fraction of what tunneling currently costs. The current price of tunneling depends on several factors, but tunnel-based projects can cost between $2.5 billion per mile in places like New York, to $100 million per mile in Asia (Via. Tunneling Online.) Musk's company has yet to complete a project for under $15 million per mile. However, The Boring Company did complete a 1.7-mile-long tunnel-based project in Nevada for $47 million, which included three stations and was significantly cheaper than other tunnel projects — especially US-based ones. Because of the speeds involved, any Hyperloop track will have to be as straight as possible. Even slight turns at high speed involve G-forces, and the Earth isn't flat. Tunneling straight through obstacles like hills and mountains makes more sense than going over or around them. If Musk's Boring Company can create those tunnels at a low price, the project's overall cost could drop by billions. Advertisement