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From NY to LA in 45 minutes?

Van Basten

Van Basten

Black Is Smart
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Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes.


Elon Musk wants to revolutionize transportation with high-speed trains in enormous pneumatic tubes.
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The serial entrepreneur envisions a future where mag-lev trains in enormous pneumatic tubes whisk us from Los Angeles to New York in 45 minutes. Need to be in Beijing tomorrow? No problem. It's a two-hour ride away.

As crazy as it sounds, Musk is merely updating an idea that's been around since the early 1900s, and at least one company is working on a functional prototype. But according to Wired sources, his involvement won't be nearly as hands-on as Musk's other endeavors at Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

The engineering behind the Hyperloop is similar to the old-school pneumatic tube systems used by banks to suck your deposit to the teller at the drive-through. But naturally, it's more complicated than that.

A massive vacuum tube — mounted either above ground or even under water — would be combined with a magnetic levitation system used on conventional bullet trains. That means no friction, no wind resistance, no chance of collisions, and insanely high speeds.
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Read the rest here.

IF this could actually work and enough people could get behind the project, it'd be awesome. It really would.
 
Van Basten said:
Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes.






Read the rest here.

IF this could actually work and enough people could get behind the project, it'd be awesome. It really would.
Click to expand...

That would be cool, going across America in just under an hour. Problem is its probably a project that will not come to fruition due to the economy.
After that it would probably be a trans-Atlantic tunnel or something of the like unless they can speed up aircraft travel.
 
Well, we all know that some science fiction can become reality. I don't see that happening any time soon.
 
Van Basten said:
Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes.








Read the rest here.

IF this could actually work and enough people could get behind the project, it'd be awesome. It really would.
Click to expand...

They came up with the concept way back when, hell 1910 by Robert Goddard and explored in some fashion by tinkerers and science fiction writers ever since. Arthur C. Clark was writing about them in the forties. The reason no one built one is because they would be exceptionally expensive. So unless Musk found a way to make it MUCH cheaper to build the train is already derailed.
 
I glanced at this thread, and thought vacuum tubes, several thousand mile per hour.. wait
a minute, the fastest I can move something with a gas pressure wave,
is the speed of sound of the gas.
I read the article, Electrically powered cars in an evacuated tube.
That actually has some real possibilities.
There are some technical issues to keeping a long tube evacuated, but I suspect
the vacuum does not have to be any more than a rough vacuum, say 1 Torr.
(1 Torr would be about the same air pressure as about 150,000 feet up)
Let's take a theoretical trip, 3000 miles in 45 min.
Accelerate at 1 G for 230 seconds, coast with minimal input for 37 min,
and slow down for about 4 min.(also at 1 G)
Max speed near 5,000 mph. (vacuum may need to be a bit lower, but still rough)
 
longview said:
I glanced at this thread, and thought vacuum tubes, several thousand mile per hour.. wait
a minute, the fastest I can move something with a gas pressure wave,
is the speed of sound of the gas.
I read the article, Electrically powered cars in an evacuated tube.
That actually has some real possibilities.
There are some technical issues to keeping a long tube evacuated, but I suspect
the vacuum does not have to be any more than a rough vacuum, say 1 Torr.
(1 Torr would be about the same air pressure as about 150,000 feet up)
Let's take a theoretical trip, 3000 miles in 45 min.
Accelerate at 1 G for 230 seconds, coast with minimal input for 37 min,
and slow down for about 4 min.(also at 1 G)
Max speed near 5,000 mph. (vacuum may need to be a bit lower, but still rough)
Click to expand...

Sure, it's theoretically plausible. It would be quite the achievement to pull off.
 
Will be killed off by the oil and car industry, just as they have killed off everything else that threatens their business.
 
PeteEU said:
Will be killed off by the oil and car industry, just as they have killed off everything else that threatens their business.
Click to expand...
Fe fi fo fum.

I smell a conspiracy theorist...
 
PeteEU said:
Naw based on fact. After all they did stop improved mileage standards for 3 decades almost..
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If you say so.

Look at how much more those mandated mileage standards cost people.

Your agenda is not mine.
 
Lord of Planar said:
If you say so.

Look at how much more those mandated mileage standards cost people.
Click to expand...

Yea it costs them tons of money when the gas prices skyrocket... also lining the oil companies pockets.

Had the US followed Japan and Europe on improving mileage standards after the first oil crisis in 1973 and continued to do it, then the average US mileage would be much much better and that would mean it would cost the consumer much less..
 
i'd vastly prefer something like this to flying.

below is a complete list of the things i find appealing about being 30,000 feet in the air in an aluminum tube piloted by humans :
 
The big problem I see is making it practical. Unless you could come up with some kind of switching you'd need back and forth tubes between each city. NY-LA is great but if you only want to go as far as Chicago then you either need another set of tubes or some way to conveniently run tens of thousands of cars through these tubes at VASTLY different speeds. For those of you who remember the vacuum tubes at department stores and such you'll recall that there were separate tubes for each destination so as you approached a key destination you ended up with a spaghetti bowl of tubes.

I'm not up to speed on this kind of tech so maybe a reasonable method of switching at high speeds is already out there but at the speeds we're talking about a missed switch would result in a tube full of goo.
 
longview said:
I glanced at this thread, and thought vacuum tubes, several thousand mile per hour.. wait
a minute, the fastest I can move something with a gas pressure wave,
is the speed of sound of the gas.
I read the article, Electrically powered cars in an evacuated tube.
That actually has some real possibilities.
There are some technical issues to keeping a long tube evacuated, but I suspect
the vacuum does not have to be any more than a rough vacuum, say 1 Torr.
(1 Torr would be about the same air pressure as about 150,000 feet up)
Let's take a theoretical trip, 3000 miles in 45 min.
Accelerate at 1 G for 230 seconds, coast with minimal input for 37 min,
and slow down for about 4 min.(also at 1 G)
Max speed near 5,000 mph. (vacuum may need to be a bit lower, but still rough)
Click to expand...

I wonder what would happen if you got up to speed and lost the vaccum. Sounds like a cool idea, but it'd be a long time proving itself before I'd get on it.
 
Van Basten said:
Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes.



Read the rest here.

IF this could actually work and enough people could get behind the project, it'd be awesome. It really would.
Click to expand...

If anyone other than Elon Musk was behind this I don't think it'd even rate major coverage.
 
Van Basten said:
Elon Musk thinks he can get you from NY to LA in 45 minutes.






Read the rest here.

IF this could actually work and enough people could get behind the project, it'd be awesome. It really would.
Click to expand...

I am so excited about this I could scream like a little girl. Elon Musk is ****ing awesome.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I am so excited about this I could scream like a little girl. Elon Musk is ****ing awesome.
Click to expand...

If he gets a reusable single stage to orbit rocket, a mass marketable electric car, cost efficient solar power generation (one I'm more doubtful of in terms of his model and plan), and somehow hyperloop as well he'd probably be on track for one of the greatest humans who ever lived.
 
Sherman123 said:
If he gets a reusable single stage to orbit rocket, a mass marketable electric car, cost efficient solar power generation (one I'm more doubtful of in terms of his model and plan), and somehow hyperloop as well he'd probably be on track for one of the greatest humans who ever lived.
Click to expand...

In my book accomplishing all of those things would definitely put him as #1. He's already on my science wall next to my desk.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I am so excited about this I could scream like a little girl. Elon Musk is ****ing awesome.
Click to expand...

I could see myself making this trip via tube.. I'd promptly be sick to my stomach and reach my destination dressed to the nines, covered in g force vomit.
 
TheGirlNextDoor said:
I could see myself making this trip via tube.. I'd promptly be sick to my stomach and reach my destination dressed to the nines, covered in g force vomit.
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The 45 min figure may be just a tad bit unrealistic,
to make a journey of aprox 3000 miles, the first 1400, would be in acceleration so as not to accelerate
too fast & endanger the heath of the passengers, and then 200 miles at a speed aprox 3500 mph,
and then the next 1400 miles in deceleration .... still a LOT of trouble to go to & for what benefit,
so somebody could have lunch in LA, and dinner in NYC? .... what? are busy executives that time pressed
that its really necessary?

wow man ..... is this trip really necessary?
 
FederalRepublic said:
I wonder what would happen if you got up to speed and lost the vaccum. Sounds like a cool idea, but it'd be a long time proving itself before I'd get on it.
Click to expand...

Assuming that it was a relatively gradual repressurization you'd probably just slow down but if it was close to instantaneous you'd probably find out what life feels like at 20+ g's.
 
Lutherf said:
Assuming that it was a relatively gradual repressurization you'd probably just slow down but if it was close to instantaneous you'd probably find out what life feels like at 20+ g's.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no Thanks.
 
Menard_K said:
The 45 min figure may be just a tad bit unrealistic,
to make a journey of aprox 3000 miles, the first 1400, would be in acceleration so as not to accelerate
too fast & endanger the heath of the passengers, and then 200 miles at a speed aprox 3500 mph,
and then the next 1400 miles in deceleration .... still a LOT of trouble to go to & for what benefit,
so somebody could have lunch in LA, and dinner in NYC? .... what? are busy executives that time pressed
that its really necessary?

wow man ..... is this trip really necessary?
Click to expand...

And I would bet the trip was necessary, but not at that rate of travel. The only thing I could think of, is if a very close loved one was dying. That's about it.
 
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