Team rLoop Hyperloop Sponsorship

DigiKey is proud to be a member of team rLoop for the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. The activity is the latest example of DigiKey’s commitment to innovation and sustainability. Similar to our partnership with TE Connectivity and Adafruit around Formula E (see www.digikey.com/racing), DigiKey, along with TE Connectivity, sees Hyperloop as the next chapter of urban-based transportation solutions and believes that the experiences learned and technologies developed will shape societies for years to come.

What's the Hyperloop?

From TE Connectivity:

For years, Californian political and business leaders had discussed the merits of a high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Frustrated by the debate, and alarmed by the costs, environmental impact, and energy requirements for this new rail line, Elon Musk proposed a radical new solution: create a fifth mode of transportation. He called it the Hyperloop.¹

The idea behind Hyperloop was simple: Build a 300-mile long pneumatic tube running between the two cities. Inside the tube, reduce the air pressure to 0.001 atmospheres. With less air resistance, a pod could reach and maintain a speed of 700 miles per hour while solar energy could power the entire system, getting you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 minutes.^1,2 Read More

rLOOP - The Team of Tomorrow

In June 2015, the engineering community was challenged to invent prototype pods for the future of transportation – The Hyperloop. From over 1,200 teams that responded, just one, the rLoop team, was virtually crowdsourced, becoming the only non-university team to advance to the final round of the competition and receive a prestigious Design Innovation Award. For more information on rLoop, please visit www.rloop.org.

Competition Weekend II

The rLoop team will be at the SpaceX Hyperloop track in Hawthorned, CA for Competition Weekend II on August 25-27, 2017. In January 2017, SpaceX provided their Hyperloop transportation services for the world’s first ever Hyperloop Pod Competition. The goal of the competition is to rapidly drive prototypes and innovation in developing high-speed pods. After a successful first round of competition SpaceX decided to move forward with Hyperloop Pod Competition II. Learn More

1 Musk, E. (2013, August 12). Hyperloop-alpha. Retrieved January 2, 2017, from http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf
2 De Chant, Tim (August 13, 2013). "Promise and Perils of Hyperloop and Other High-Speed Trains". PBS.org. Nova Next. Retrieved January 2, 2017.