Why hyperloops will change the world

If you have not been aware of hyperloops yet, it is definitely time to get introduced to the future of transportation technologies. If you have watched some science fiction movies, you may already know the concept. Trains driving in supernatural speed through a glass tube without making any noise – this vision is becoming a reality today.

In this article, we will explain what hyperloops are and why they are the future of transportation. In addition, we will introduce one of the female heads behind the technology development: Dr. Anita Sengupta, Senior Vice President at Virgin Hyperloop One. She will be one of our world-class speakers at the Global Female Leaders Summit 2019.

WHAT IS A HYPERLOOP?

The idea of moving vehicles at high speeds through low-pressure tubes has been around since 1909. But Elon Musk came up with an advanced method, focusing on the technological side, which he published in a whitepaper in 2013. His vision was to create an open-source vacuum tube train for very-high-speed passenger and freight transportation. This way of transportation would revolutionize the way of transport, as it is as fast as flights and environmentally acceptable at the same time.

Just imagine: You can make a 2 hours drive only in 12 minutes with a hyperloop. Train stations are designed and built to be in the middle of cities, thus no more travelling to airports and waiting for baggage necessary.

Elon Musk’s whitepaper was the milestone that started a long journey of investment funding, cooperations and test phases until today. Suddenly people wanted to make this dream come true.

Virgin Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies were one of the first established companies working on the hyperloop technology and actually building components and test areas. The competition grew rapidly, which automatically led to a huge progress in making this technology passenger-ready.

FEMALE LEADERS BEHIND HYPERLOOP

One of the global heads behind this progress is Dr. Anita Sengupta, Senior Vice President at Virgin Hyperloop One. She studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California and started her career at Boeing Space and Communications as a test engineer for the Delta IV vehicle.

After that, she worked over 17 years at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she enabled the exploration of Mars, Asteroids, and Deep Space. Besides other achievements, she became the Senior Systems Engineer for the entry decent and landing team on the Mars Science Laboratory Mission. Here, she took over the leadership for a discovery mission concept to gain a Mars sample and return it to Earth.

Her final role at NASA was the management of the Cold Atom Laboratory, a laser-cooling quantum physics facility on board of the ISS. This mission even won the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough award in 2016.

Even though Dr. Sengupta was a successful and valuable member of the NASA-Team, she decided to leave the aerospace industry to take on a new challenge developing astonishing technology on our beloved Earth.

In her leading role at Hyperloop One, she is responsible for product planning and development of all hyperloop-related parts. Safety and mission assurance as well as regulatory compliance is an important part of her job.

She is not the only one, who is convinced of this new form of high-speed green transportation. But her experiences and personality make her an astonishing female role model for the engineering industry. Dr. Sengupta will share her thoughts and experiences as a Rocket scientist, professor and corporate leader at the Global Female Leaders Summit 12. – 14. May 2019. If you want to join her and other remarkable female leaders, book your seat.

Dr. Sengupta’s vision for hyperloops: It “will revolutionize travel”

Which leads us to the following question.

HOW WILL HYPERLOOPS CHANGE THE WAY WE LIVE AND COMMUTE IN THE FUTURE?

Elon Musk wants to travel fast. He even said, someone should please figure out real teleportation (Musk’s Whitepaper 2013). Even though teleportation is not possible until now, the hyperloop will be able to transport people and goods as fast as imaginable. This rapid transport vehicle will automatically transform the way we live. The possibility of getting from A to B in only minutes instead of hours makes people less depended on their hometown.

The labor market will change dramatically. People have the possibility to work in another city than their home town without fearing distance or waste loss of time. In some cases, it will even be faster to take the hyperloop to a city 300km away than driving 15km with the car in their hometown. This also implies that the talent pool for companies may extend enormously, however at the same time the fight for young and talented academics could worsen.

This development will also revolutionize the real estate market. Why should people live in the middle of New York City for extremely high rents, when they can buy a much cheaper house in the suburbs and drive only 10 minutes with the hyperloop into the city?

Hyperloops can also revolutionize the whole delivery system. Waiting three weeks in the UK for a shipment from the US? Not with hyperloop. It will only take a few days. Waiting 1-2 days for the newest book of your favorite author on Amazon? Not with hyperloop. It will only take a few hours until you can put your nose in the pages.

Moreover the tourism sector will experience disruption. When it takes only 1,5 hours from New York to Los Angeles or Miami, why not drive to the beach every weekend? Or only one hour from Germany to Italy – Germans would say: “I will take you out for dinner in Rome today!”

These future visions will take several more years until they become reality because hyperloop companies are currently at the test phase in specially designed testing areas. Nevertheless, global leaders need to be prepared for the enormous change that hyperloops will bring.

Immerge with Dr. Anita Sengupta into the future of mobility at the Global Female Leaders Summit 2019.

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