This week the team submitted their first document to SpaceX, the Preliminary Design Briefing. The briefing, a 30 slide powerpoint, outlines the main design points of the 2018 pod. Over the past two weeks, the five different design groups have been refining their methods and components for the pod and starting initial calculations. To help with the total oversight of the pod, a team member was designated as an Integration Specialist. He will oversee the assimilation of the five component areas and foster communication between the design teams.
Once the Rice Hyperloop team has received confirmation from SpaceX, prototyping will begin. Dimensions of the pod and it’s various components have not yet been set in stone. Alongside prototyping the team will begin to write their ‘white paper’, a more technical document containing exact measurements of components, systems and the overall design. The white paper will be due sometime between December and January, when final design overviews will be completed by SpaceX and the competition judges.
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