This repository is meant to serve as a starting point for open-source research & development based on the Hyperloop whitepaper published by Elon Musk & his associates.

The work contained within is a project of The Hyperloop Foundation.

Below is text from the Hyperloop Foundation website. More information can be found at www.thehyperloopfoundation.org

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Many have been inspired by the bold vision for a true paradigm shift in ground transportation that has achieved only incremental improvements since it’s heyday in the early 20th century. In order to organize or coordinate the efforts by mechanical, structural, software, hardware, robotics, & other engineers around the world (as well as experts in other fields), The Hyperloop Foundation has been formed to serve as catalyst and coordinator of efforts to bring Hyperloop from white paper to reality.

• We will collect research, help contributors coordinate and synchronize their work, and periodically publish updates that combine the best work of the community as a whole.

• We will operate discussion forums including newsletters, meetup groups, wikis, etc.

• We will track & publicize works in progress, and generally attempt to provide “roadmaps” for various phases of R&D

• And we will, above all, be flexible and responsive to the community. We are very aware that if we are not perceived as providing a useful service, we will become irrelevant, and someone else will take our place.

• We are not primary engineers, developers, or scientists. Most of the research & development will be done elsewhere, by others; and we only seek or focus these efforts to continue advances of the project.

• We are organizers, instigators, and integrators. We’ll attempt to help people reach consensus, provide direction and coordinate for continual improvements and iterations.

From Mozilla.org (circa 1998)

It can be observed that all successful open-source software projects follow this model of distributed development and centralized integration. One of the fears that open-source software software neophytes often express is that open availability of the source will lead to balkanization, that there will eventually be thousands of different descendants of the original software, and confusion and chaos will result. But, in reality that doesn't happen; organizations like mozilla.org tend to appear. Eric Raymond tries to explain why in his excellent paper, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

We also hope to operate in the “Bazaar” style, and be to the development of the science behind the Hyperloop as Mozilla was to the public Netscape source code as Linus Torvalds is to Linux.

(Ed. note: The inspiration, styling, and often direct paraphrasing of content on this page came from the original 1998 Mozilla.org website accessed through the Wayback Machine)