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Shell Design Duration
5 months
Shell Project Partners
Ethan Simcock
Nicole Lambert
Mitchel Frimodt
What is the Hyperloop
Competition?
Hyperloop is a high speed train competition that SpaceX hosts every year at their headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The top 20 teams in the world are invited to the competition, and universities use a full week to prove to SpaceX, Tesla, and Boring Company employees that their design is safe to run in the mile long vacuum tube.
Only the top 4 teams are allowed to actually run.
What are the goals of the competition?
To go as fast as possible, and to stop within 100 feet of the tube end. Our team was projected to go around 300 mph.
Image courtesy of Geekwire
Inspiration + Sketches
Preparing the mold
Since the material cost of carbon fiber manufacturing is so high, we tried to save every bit of money we could.
Since our mold was over 1,000 lbs, there was no way we could drop it off at school to prepare it for the layup. We decided to pick up the foam mold from Janicki Industries, prepare it in the U-haul we picked it up in, and then drop it off at Boeing for the layup.
(No U-hauls were harmed during the making of this shell)
Creating the layup schedule
I created all the flat patterns that would be used in the layup. We ended up planning for a 3 ply thickness, with two variations of cut patterns.
Laying up at Boeing
Boeing was very gracious to let us layup our shell in their facilities. It was an amazing feeling to know that the shell was being cured in the same autoclave as the Boeing fuselages.
Watch the pod unveiling video
Video Courtesy of Dang Khoa
Competing in Hawthorne, CA
We narrowly missed going into the tube this year due to a faulty thermocouple and teensy board frying on the last day. However, we still remain one of the top teams in the United States.
Other than that, we got to meet Elon Musk and see one of the finalist pods explode in the vacuum tube.
Competition V
Anchor 1
Leading a team
I have always been interested in bridging engineering and design, so I was excited to share this passion with 3 other team members this year.
This position has allowed me to touch more aspects of design than I do in school, as well as learn how to develop brand strategy, create project timelines, and work with engineers effectively.
Part of my goal as lead is to know what my members want to do for careers, then try and match the work I assign to what they want to do as closely as I can.
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