This Hyperloop Pod has REAL HOVER ENGINES
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,175 words · ~5 min read
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oh man this is a heavy door okay so what if i told you that there
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was a mode of transportation that not only promised to leave planes trains and
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automobiles all in the dust but to do so
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with extraordinary efficiency and that te connectivity brought us down to los
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angeles to take a close look at a sponsored prototype built by a ragtag
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team of reddit engineers
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rangineers calling themselves our loop
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from all over the world it weighs 400
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kilograms contains hundreds of sensors
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and it can freaking hover
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so our loop started out in much the same way that any online
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community does as a group of passionate people on reddit that saw that spacex
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was hosting a hyperloop competition and figured that they could do it better
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but unlike most online communities with
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some help from spacex and sponsors like tecon activity who provided engineering
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resources sensors wiring and manufacturing space they managed to
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overcome the geographical and communication barriers that inevitably
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arise when you've got a team of over a thousand people scattered across dozens
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of countries and they actually did
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something and considering that all of these folks
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are volunteers one of which even quit his job and moved
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to the u.s from india for a year
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what they've done is nothing short of amazing so let's take a closer look at
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the pod now if you're not already familiar with the hyperloop concept the
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first thing you'll probably notice is that there's no obvious external
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propulsion mechanism like a jet engine or a propeller
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that's because hyperloop pods aren't expected to be able to propel themselves
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see this big plate on the back of the pod it's called a pusher plate
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now in the future pods could be launched down the tube at near hypersonic speeds
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then boosted by linear induction motors essentially making the tube a big rail
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gun or they could use an on-board system but for the purposes of the competition
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that we're attending today this pusher plate is used to give the pod a colossal
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kick in the ass with a stripped-down tesla and send it whipping down the
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track but anyone who's ever tried to mimic their
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dog sticking their head out of a car window can probably guess that uh the
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fiberglass nose cone over there isn't going to solve the pods air resistance
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challenges at over a thousand kilometers
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per hour where air feels less like a
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gentle breeze and more like the boston molasses tsunami of 1919
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which is a real thing by the way look it up so the proposed solution for now is
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to run these pods inside a closed tube
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that's being held at a near vacuum now the clever among you have probably
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also noticed that these wheels are totally unsuitable for speed of
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sound travel that's because they are only for manual maneuvering of the pod
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and emergencies these babies right here are what
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actually keep the pods butt from getting as raw as mine did on a dried up water
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slide that one time there are eight of
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what the team affectionately refers to as hover engines
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each of them is made up of three king strong magnets
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it's a scientific term right there arranged in what's called a hall back
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array to augment the strength of the magnetic field of the individual magnets
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so when they start spinning over an electrically conductive surface they
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actually create enough lift to keep this
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400 kilogram pod levitating above the
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track then there are also passive magnets on
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the bottom for additional lift once the pod gets up to full speed and while
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we're on the topic of magnets they power the brakes too the pod uses two 28-inch
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hallback arrays that are configured such
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that they create drag as they approach a
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conductive surface without making contact so that means no biannual brake
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pad replacements sorry nappa and this is really cool too
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while any pod that would hope to be used
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in a working hyperloop would need to levitate to achieve the required
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efficiency our loop's design is unique in that its
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active hover engines allow it to levitate over any conductive surface
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not just inside of a specialized tube
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and furthermore their gimbal mounting system lets them be used for thrust in
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addition to just lift however this crazy levitation is super power
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hungry so much so that the team had to
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design and custom manufacture two of
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these 2 000 amp lithium polymer battery packs
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these things are so powerful that a wrench accidentally dropped inside would
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essentially weld itself to the copper bus bars then they crammed both of them
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into the pod for redundancy which is where te connectivity comes in through
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the transmission of power and data signals now let's talk cooling the heat
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generated by the various mechanical and electrical systems in the pod many of
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which you can actually see when we pop the hood is monitored by over 600
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thermal sensors but monitoring is not enough you got to
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get rid of it and because there will be virtually no air in the tube the
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solution is not as simple as just slapping a radiator to the front of the
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pod our loops answer this liquid carbon dioxide cooling
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system so at the end of each of these little brass fittings is a super small
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hole only 13 and a half thousandths of an inch that when activated dispenses
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four grams of liquid co2 per second
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when that goes from the high pressure holding tank to the low pressure near
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vacuum environment the liquid co2 vaporizes removing heaps of heat in the
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process how much exactly well let's just say
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that if you opened it up over a glowing hot toaster you'd be left with a block
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of dry ice to say that there are still a lot of
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engineering manufacturing security cost
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and logistical problems for hyperloop believers to solve
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would be an understatement but the work being done here and the
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reason for sponsors like te connectivity to get involved
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is not necessarily about building a working hyperloop and pod
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tomorrow it's about developing technologies that
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may end up being deployed in completely different ways that we haven't even
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imagined yet and if we succeed in building a system
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that lets commuters travel from san francisco to la in as little as 35
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minutes with no strip search from your friendly local tsa officer
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well then that's just icing so thanks for watching guys if you
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disliked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit the like
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button get subscribed maybe consider checking out te.com
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our loop where you can watch a five-part webisode documentary about the r-loop
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team and learn about their awesome virtual collaboration model