A futuristic transport system envisioned by Elon Musk. A wave of international students striving to make it real. And a violent encounter in the Silicon Prairie
January 29, 2017 was a warm winter day in southern California, USA. The sky was hazy, and white light bounced off the road running between SpaceX headquarters and the ass-end of a Costco. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, standing at a lectern next to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, called this paved slice of post-industrial heaven “the cradle of aerospace”. I had come for a glimpse of the future — not in the hangars housing the company’s beautiful minds and rocket ships, but in the pipeline-like tube directly behind the mayor and Musk. Six feet in diameter, it ran on a 1.6km track adjacent to the SpaceX complex.
“Today”, Garcetti said, “we are looking at the very first Hyperloop pods. This is the future of transportation”.
I was among 2000 sweaty technophiles packed onto two sets of metallic grandstands at the finals of the first-ever SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Also on site were 800 members of 27 competing teams, mainly from academic institutions. The finalists had been distilled from more than 1200 applicants around the world. That day, only three of the teams would successfully run their pods on the SpaceX Hyperloop test track.
Denne historien er fra July 2017-utgaven av Playboy South Africa.
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Denne historien er fra July 2017-utgaven av Playboy South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Užupis Utopia
What’s the true story behind a make-believe republic in Eastern Europe that captures the imagination of everyone who visits? Daisy Alioto searches for meaning in a booming micronation
Bring On The Vomit
The lauded comedic director (Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters, the upcoming Last Christmas) on the joys of making you laugh without depending on dialogue
4 Exciting Games To Look Forward To In 2019
So far, 2019 has been a stellar year for games, from the punishing difficulty of Sekiro to the demon-slaying combo-filled joy of Devil May Cry 5 to the controller gripping suspense and zombie-infested remake of Resident Evil 2. But we are only halfway through the year and these are the 4 games of 2019 we are most excited about.
Safe Word
A vanilla husband wants to please his kinky wife. Can Mistress Ava help?
She Got Away
Incidents, accidents, surprises and demises — Cheryl’s in over her head dealing with a family emergency
High-Speed American Dreams
A futuristic transport system envisioned by Elon Musk. A wave of international students striving to make it real. And a violent encounter in the Silicon Prairie
Christopher Nolan
A candid conversation with the filmmaker on the through-lines that bind his sprawling canon — from Memento to the Dark Knight trilogy to his new World War II epic