SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition
Engineering Design and Construction
From the same people dedicated to making rockets reusable and colonizing Mars, the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition is challenging university students and independent engineering teams to design, build, and operate their prototype Hyperloop Pods in order to accelerate Hyperloop research and development and encourage student innovation in STEM.
In the spirit of collective progress, all intellectual property produced during the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition will be publicly available, ensuring that nothing stands in the way of a full-scale Hyperloop and a fundamentally better transportation future. Read more about the competition below or meet USC Hyperloop, the University of Southern California's competition team.
Competition Timeline
Dates
October 20, 2015
November 13, 2015
January 13, 2015
January 29-30, 2016
January 27-29, 2017
Events
Technical Details
Preliminary Design Briefing
Final Design Package
Design Weekend
Competition Weekend
Details
Rules, criteria, and final tube specifications released by SpaceX.
Top-level description of design and safety features from entrants.
Low-level design package with Pod production schedule, bill of materials, costs, and technical question answers from entrants.
In-person design presentations and review at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
Prototype Pods compete at the SpaceX Hyperloop Test Track. Criteria for judging the pods will be announced on August 15.
Design Weekend
January 29-30, 2016
Entrants will present their design and build proposal before an evaluation panel of SpaceX engineers, Tesla Motors engineers, and university professors.
Building a Pod will require substantial capital and resources, so companies in attendance will select the best teams to sponsor and ensure that they receive the funding and resources needed to execute a Pod build.
Competition Weekend
January 27-29, 2017
Participating teams will test their Pods at the SpaceX Hyperloop Test Track at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California just 10 months after the start of the competition.
The rules and judging criteria will be released with the competition Technical Details on August 15, but expect performance to be tested in the context of full-scale Hyperloop requirements.
SpaceX Hyperloop Test Track
1 Rocket Road Hawthorne, California 90250
SpaceX is building a 1 mile long and 6 ft. in diameter Hyperloop Test Track adjacent to its headquarters in Hawthorne, California for teams to test their Pods. This is also the location of Competition Weekend in June 2016.
