The Hyperloop is ‘really not that hard’ says Elon Musk

He's conquered space travel, solar energy and built an electric car empire, but Elon Musk reveals the easiest project he's come up with is the Hyperloop.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder, often referred to as the quintessential Tony Stark aka Iron Man, said in an interview with CNN Money that his new Hyperloop train system isn't nearly as hard as it sounds.

“I know there are various companies that are trying to create the Hyperloop and honestly I think it is a lot easier than people think. Blueprints are always kind of complicated and yes there is math, but it's really not that hard,” Musk said.

The futuristic concept will move at nearly sonic speeds in a vacuum tube, aiming to get from London to Edinburgh or LA to San Franciscoin under 30 minutes. Musk isn't commercialising the Hyperloop just yet, but is running a Pod competition next year to find the best design for a passenger capsule for it. If you're interested, see here for more details.

“It's like a tube with an air hockey table, it's just a low pressure tube, with a pod in it that runs on air bearings, on air skis. With an air compressor on the front that is taking the high pressure air built on the nose and pumping it through the air skis. It's really, I swear it's not that hard,” Musk said.

The tech boss has been busy, of late. He was onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week, talking less like a superhero and more like a supervillain. Discussing his plans to make Mars habitable, he said the fastest way is to nuke it. Tempting, but we'll stick with your electric cars for now, Mr Musk.