New ETH podcast

Revolutionising transport

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is using the competition to advance his Hyperloop vision: that one day capsules will transport people and goods from A to B via vacuum tubes at almost the speed of sound. The student teams presenting the most promising concepts have the opportunity to test their transport capsules – known as “pods” – for a week on the SpaceX site. Over 1,000 student teams from all over the world applied to take part. Swissloop, an association of students from ETH Zurich and other Swiss universities, was one of the 20 teams that received an invitation to the 2018 competition. But the field gets even narrower in the final: only the three best pods get to travel through the 1.25-kilometre long vacuum tube, and the fastest one wins. Hear for yourself how Swissloop members Cassandra, Luca and Hanno experienced their time at the competition, with all of its highs and lows.

Swissloop is an association of students from ETH Zurich and other Swiss universities. Over 50 students have contributed to the project since its inception in the autumn of 2016. http://swissloop.ch/