Moments ago, after months of anticipation, Hyperloop One, whose high-tech tube transportation concept is central to a firm affiliated with billionaire Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors and SolarCity fame, has named the ten winners of its Hyperloop One Global Challenge, a contest intended to "identify the strongest new Hyperloop routes in the world." And not only did the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop proposal make the grade, but Hyperloop One has announced that it will enter into a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to launch a feasibility study here.

We first told you about Hyperloop in August 2013, describing the proposed system as a "large-scale variation on pneumatic tubes used at banks" that was said to "hold the potential of transporting people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in thirty minutes."

How is it supposed to work? "Passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod, and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube," the company maintains. "The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag."