Not wanting to get left in the dust of Elon Musk's or skyTran's new hyperloop transportation systems capable of whisking terrestrial travelers from point to point at jet airliner speeds, NASA and Boeing have teamed up with their own iteration of this futuristic transit invention.

A crowdsourced consortium called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and backed by NASA and Boeing veterans has tossed its hat in the ring to create the most efficient and viable high-speed pod transportation system. The group has announced news of a licensed passive magnetic levitation technology to power its prototype system, promising to shuttle humans and goods in a vacuum tube system at speeds up to 750 mph with fewer safety concerns and costs.

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The Los Angeles-based startup's passive mag-lev approach is based on sound science developed by the late physicist Richard Post of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and could conceivably zip passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes flat! This more economical method utilizes rare-earth magnets installed on the transport pods themselves to interact with interior pod magnets to create lift instead of tracks embedded with copper coils. HTT is fortified by financial donations and a team of space tech veterans donating their efforts to the project.

"From a safety aspect, the system has huge advantages, levitation occurs purely through movement, therefore if any type of power failure occurs, Hyperloop pods would continue to levitate and only after reaching minimal speeds touch the ground," said Bibop Gresta, chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.

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Hyperloop Technologies Inc., a rival enterpise co-founded by investor Shervin Pishevar and ex-SpaceX engineer Brogan BamBrogan, is about to demonstrate its prototype product at a press event in the Nevada desert next week and has raised more than $37 million to date Elon Musk's SpaceX is backing its proposed proprietary hyperloop test track in Texas and will pour millions into the project to gain the advantage.

Last year, HTT announced it would be installing its supersonic hyperloop test track in 2016 at a proposed 75,000-resident solar-powered city in Quay Valley, Calif., halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco at a price of $150 million, though no ground has been broken yet.

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What do you think of this speedy new technology, and would you ride in one of its magnetic levitation pods?

(Via USA TODAY)