And you thought your eighth-grade science fair went well.
Well, maybe it did. But chances are it wasn’t as cool as testing Hyperloop Pods on a test track at the SpaceX headquarters. That privilege was reserved for teams of students from Delft University in the Netherlands, the Technical University of Munich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology who got to test their prototype pods on the SpaceX track over the weekend, according to Popular Mechanics.
The three teams emerged from a field of 30 that recently competed for the chance to try their pods on the mile-long track. Teams were tested on a variety of criteria and judged by SpaceX engineers. While the Munich team was recognized for having the fastest pod, the Delft team had the best overall score.
Hyperloop is a conceptual method of high-speed travel developed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that has generated a lot of interest in the science community.
“So Hyperloop is the idea of a high-speed train inside of a tube, held at very-low pressure near a vacuum environment like space, and its levitating,” John Mayo, project manager for MIT Hyperloop, said in video posted to MIT Mechanical Engineering’s YouTube page. “So it should be smooth, and it should be fast.”
As for the competition, it isn’t over yet. The second phase takes place this summer and will focus on top speeds, with the three finalists being joined by additional competitors.
