Hyperloop: Munich Musk students win again

Students at the Munich Technical University strongly impressed technology billionaire Elon Musk: with a brilliant victory in the competition for the most successful Hyperloop capsule fast. The work on the turbo train was for young researchers but more than just a technological project. She changed her life.

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Wolfgang Stegers

Appreciation increases every time: After the first victory, "Warr Hyperloop" – the team of the Munich TU – even receives a pretty thin eulogy in the "Campus-Spiegel", the magazine of the Forschungszentrum Garching. Winning the Los Angeles SpaceX competition was only a few worthwhile lines. But Martin Riedel does not question him as well as his 36 colleagues from the Hyperloop team at the Technical University.

Another thing matters to them: they convinced Elon Musk of their concept against thirty or so teams from around the world, including the famous Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The founder of SpaceX and the boss of Tesla thought that the capsule they had designed was the best place to shoot people at speeds of over 1000 kilometers per hour (km / h) through a vacuum tube to remote places.

Musk had the idea of ​​the revolutionary circulation system called Hyperloop, which – powered by renewable energies – should in the future compete with air traffic, always harmful to the climate. The teams have not yet reached the speed of sound.

At the second attempt of L.A., whose victory drew more attention from the team, Munich reached the top speed of 324 km / h in the last round. An electric motor with 50 kilowatts of power and 40 Newton meters of torque is not the world, explains Riedel standing next to the model of the capsule. But how quickly the little engine drove the 80-pound capsule at such a high rate "surprised even an Elon Musk".

What surprised Musk almost more: the students started with their own Not easy design – like many other teams – with a finished Tesla engine. The Munich player is based on an electric motor with which the Formula Student's electric race cars romp. The energy is provided by a 120-cell lithium-ion battery, which is found in cordless drills or lawn mowers. "Elon was really puzzled," smiles the student. The recognition by the visionary business leader of the Valley was the team worth more than all the bonus points for diligent study at this time. Riedel: "It's a test for life."

This year, the track was a little shorter (1.2 instead of 1.6) and the pod a little faster: 467 km / h the capsule – and was more faster than the SpaceX pod. The thousands of hours of work that the Munich team has spent on the project since the summer of 2015 have also been forgotten.

Incidentally, there is already a European road in the pipeline:

Riedel remembers how it all started when computer science student Mariana Avezum started the process. The 25-year-old had accidentally discovered a subject for her master's thesis on the student contest that Musk and her space travel company SpaceX had announced. "If we want to achieve something computer scientist, we go to mechanical engineers because they can implement our ideas," says Riedel. In the student labs of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Avezum and his colleague Riedel met with members of WARR – the Scientific Association for Technology and Rocket Space. Here, many exciting projects have been developed, hybrid rockets, satellites, solar panels or lifts in the space. This was the ideal breeding ground for the project called WARR Hyperloop.

But everyone quickly realized how big the challenge was. Not only technical knowledge but also management skills were needed. The team around Avezum and Riedel developed in no time for more than 30 students who had to organize quickly. The complex task was divided into four areas (mechanical, electronics, magnetism and business), project managers and subject managers. It is only in this way and thanks to a tight management team that the extremely tight schedule can be maintained.

Riedel has already written software as a student and then worked as a competition swimmer – to study computer science. During the Hyperloop project, he discovered his skills as a manager, developing step by step. "Chipping ideas is one thing, but at some point the time for discussion and reflection must be over." This goes for a curriculum, for a large-scale industrial project, but more.

The amount of work needed for the Hyperloop project is also documented by the number of stickers on the two prototypes that have been developed over the past two years. Two main sponsors, Airbus and TU Munich, have immortalized here, as well as many other sponsors in silver and bronze. Dozens of companies have provided advice and actions, money and equipment. To win it, it was not enough to write an e-mail. Many locks had to clean up the students, conduct many conversations. A larger sum of six digits is likely to be in the capsule.

And Riedel himself? For him, the contacts that he has knotted over the past two years and the experience that he has accumulated are almost more valuable than the technical achievements. Yes, the project may have cost him a semester or two. But he never thought about leaving the Hyperloop project. The work on the pbadenger capsule was too much fun for that. Riedel sees the Hyperloop as a technical challenge, a vision that electrifies him. He is convinced of the feasibility of the innovative transport system. And no later than this weekend, he should not be alone with him.