Russia is prepared to tackle ambitious projects like tech billionaire Elon Musk's conceptual Hyperloop transportation system, according to Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, the RBC news website reported Friday.
Russian scientists are working to develop modes of ultra-fast transport, Sokolov said at a press briefing in the southern Russian city of Sochi, RBC reported.
The transport minister referred specifically to Musk's Hyperloop project, which is based in the United States, and the recent momentum it has gathered.
“We are not just looking for such projects, but we understand that they are the future,” he added.
According to Sokolov, the technology for such a project is already being worked on in in Russia. He was introduced to such a prototype two years ago at the St. Petersburg University of Transport and Communications, RBC reported.
The Vedomosti newspaper reported Thursday that the Russian Railways state monopoly had recently created a joint working group with U.S. company Hyperloop One, which is researching the possibility of developing Musk's Hyperloop concept.
Created a few months ago, the working group is waiting for the results of the recent testing of high-speed Hyperloop trains, Vedomosti reported.
Elon Musk — the man who brought the world PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX — published a 57-page paper on the SpaceX website in August 2013 detailing the Hyperloop technology.
The Hyperloop transportation system lands somewhere between a train and a plane. Using air hockey technology, the Hyperloop shoots passengers in a bullet-shaped capsule through a tube at projected speeds of more than 1,200 kilometers per hour.
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