A city makerspace fabrication unit operating from the Halasuru metro station will be partnering with the Hyperloop India team to create pods for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.
The pods built at the facilities of Workbench Projects, will be tested at Hawthorne, California, inside a mile-long vaccum tube in August this year.
Hyperloop India, the only team from the country to enter the final design stage of the competition, will be building the OrcaPod, a pod prototype which can reach speeds of up to 460 kmph. These pods are designed to be used in the Hyperloop system, initially proposed by Elon Musk of SpaceX in 2013.
1,200 kmph
The system consists of pods capable of carrying passengers or freight that will be levitated magnetically inside a tube with a controlled environment. This eliminates friction and reduces air resistance theoretically allowing for speeds of up to 1,200 kmph for the pods.
The fabrication of the 4x2 metre Orcapod will begin in June and will be completed by July, according to a business proposal issued by Hyperloop India and Workbench Projects.
It will be fabricated by experts from Bengaluru who will work at the Halasuru facility of Workbench Projects.
“We are expecting to set up a team of 20-25 people who will work on this project full time for 60 days. The plan is to complete it by July so that it can be transported for the competition in August. We might even have to look for a larger space as the current facility in Halasuru might not be enough for such a project,” said Anupama Gowda, co-founder, Workbench Projects, which will be supplying the space, tools and related services for the Hyperloop India team to build the OrcaPod.
Project cost
Currently, the team has raised around ₹20 lakh out of the total estimated cost of ₹75 lakh to build the OrcaPod. In order to raise the remaining funds, both teams are now looking to attract corporate sponsors whose names will then be associated with the brand. “We are currently on the lookout for sponsors who will support the project,” Ms. Gowda added.
Team Hyperloop India was founded in 2015 at BITS Pilani and has expanded to become the largest student-driven not-for-profit trust with team members consisting of students and faculty of all of the country’s top engineering and management colleges. In 2016, the team also became the only fully-funded one from India to make it to the SpaceX Hyperloop Design Weekend in College Station, Texas.
