Elon Musk's Hyperloop pod contest is moving right along.
SpaceX, which is hosting the competition, recently published details about the one-mile Hyperloop test track it plans to build at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
The Hyperloop, of course, is the futuristic mode of transportation that consists of passenger pods traveling through tubes at speeds of more than 500 miles per hour.
In June, Musk announced the competition, which aims to find the perfect pod design. As part of the contest’s final round, selected participants will have a chance to test out their pod on a sub-scale Hyperloop track.
According to a company document, the test track will be about six feet in diameter and one mile in length. It will also have a 12-foot long “foam pit” at the end of the track in case a pod’s braking system should fail.
While the contest technically started in September when entrants had to meet their first submission deadline, the first real contest event will be Design Weekend, which will be hosted in January at Texas A&M University.
At the event, judges will evaluate each team’s pod design and ultimately decide who moves on to the final round of the competition, which is slated to take place in June 2016.
On Wednesday, SpaceX announced via Twitter that it had sent out final invitations for Design Weekend. While it didn’t share an exact number of participating teams, the Texas A&M Engineering website states that more than 100 teams will present their designs.
SpaceX has not yet announced any specific prizes for winners of the overall competition. However, in updated guidelines on its website it does state that the primary rewards granted at Design Weekend will be sponsorships to help teams build their pods for the final stage of the contest. It also states that some small cash prizes may be granted.
While Musk himself is not planning to develop any commercial business out of the Hyperloop, other companies are investing in developing a full-scale system.
Two companies — Hyperloop Technologies and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies — both plan to break ground on their own test tracks within the next year and both are looking for opportunities to build the full-scale systems abroad.
