Elon Musk (Paypal,Tesla, SpaceX) publishes details of the Hyperloop, a sun powered high speed transportation system. He’s the 57page PDF: http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf

The project is said to be based on open design and open source principles calling for feedback. Here are the two related quotes:

“Hyperloop is also unique in that it is an open design concept, similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can helpadvance the Hyperloop design and bring it from concept to reality.”

“The intent of this document has been to create a new open source form of transportation that could revolutionize travel. The authors welcome feedback and will incorporate it into future revisions of the Hyperloop project, following other open source models such as Linux.

Future Work

Hyperloop is considered an open source transportation concept. The authors encourage all members of the community to contribute to the Hyperloop design process. Iteration of the design by various individuals and groups can help bring Hyperloop from an idea to a reality.

The authors recognize the need for additional work, including but not limited to:

1. More expansion on the control mechanism for Hyperloop capsules, including attitude thruster or control moment gyros.
2. Detailed station designs with loading and unloading of both passenger and passenger plus vehicle versions of the Hyperloop capsules.
3. Trades comparing the costs and benefits of Hyperloop with more conventional magnetic levitation systems.
4. Sub-scale testing based on a further optimized design to demonstrate the physics of Hyperloop. Feedback is welcomed on these or any useful aspects of the Hyperloop design.”

There are no further details on the open design / open source implementation. We will be following closely.

 A few articles related to the project:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-12/revealed-elon-musk-explains-the-hyperloop#p1

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130813003456-28157-the-hyperloop-fully-explained-underwhelms?

http://jalopnik.com/a-physicist-explains-the-three-biggest-challenges-for-t-1123562141

http://gizmodo.com/our-hyperloop-liveblog-starts-right-here-at-5-pm-et-2pm-1110567755/1112707945