Hyperloop details revealed

The main problem with this for me is the Return on Investment
Yes. I think it would work, I like the idea, but worry about the heat transfer issues. It would be cool to build it to see if it would work.
But I can say the same for the flying car Autovolantor or the personal jetpack Trek_VTOL_Springtail_Vehicles (I know some company in NZ is also doing it, but these guys flew in 2003 and then stopped)
But is it practical? The if-you-build-it-they-will-come argument only flies this far. For someone to do this in SA - say Jozi to Durban - sounds great, but how many people would need to use it every day?
And its nice to say you can zip from the station near King Shaka International to the one near OR Thambo in 15 minutes. But it takes 20 minutes from your home in Balito and a further 45 to your offices in Fourways... and if the system shuts down, ouch!
 
Been thinking about the Jozi to Durban route....

Its roughly the same distance as San Fran to LA, so similar time scales would apply. The gradients involved could be problematic due to the Escarpment, but its not an impossible thing to figure out.

If they built something like that I could instantly start working in say Sandton but living in Durban.. and my commute would be a similar time frame as living in JHB and working in JHB, or living in DBN and working in DBN... my current commute in DBN is about 45 minutes either way.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Near-Vacuum as in similar to this Hyper Loop idea...
Click to expand...
Unless I misunderstood the hyperloop then there is no vacuum involved.

Another interesting angle I picked up somewhere on the interwebs: Apparently the coils used to propel these things forward are similar/identical to the tesla ones. And this thing is expected to have excess electrical capacity = magic government funded charge points for the Teslas. Kinda brilliant actually if he can pull it off.
 
HavocXphere said:
Unless I misunderstood the hyperloop then there is no vacuum involved.

Another interesting angle I picked up somewhere on the interwebs: Apparently the coils used to propel these things forward are similar/identical to the tesla ones. And this thing is expected to have excess electrical capacity = magic government funded charge points for the Teslas. Kinda brilliant actually if he can pull it off.
Click to expand...

Even the hyperloop could be classed as "near vacuum" from a humans point of view

The air within the tube is at one-thousandth of atmospheric pressure, or about one-sixth the pressure of Mars's thin atmosphere.
Click to expand...

And yeah, he is planning on using pretty much exactly the same linear induction motors with stators and rotors.. the rotor would be on the sled, and the stator would be on the tube... that could also be a bit of an issue to get right since the clearances are very very fine for it to work 100%
 
HavocXphere said:
Unless I misunderstood the hyperloop then there is no vacuum involved.

Another interesting angle I picked up somewhere on the interwebs: Apparently the coils used to propel these things forward are similar/identical to the tesla ones. And this thing is expected to have excess electrical capacity = magic government funded charge points for the Teslas. Kinda brilliant actually if he can pull it off.
Click to expand...

The pressure inside will be about 1/6'th of surface pressure of Mars. Thats probably as high as the altitude Baungarter jumped from.
And I think the coil analogy with the Tesla ones were used to explain how they would work. Still - this system would have a lot of excess capacity. Johannesburg is at 1753m and about 497 km away. That climb up the escarpment would be a tough one.
...
A much shorter Hyperloop system - say 20 km, starting at a shallow angle, then increasing up a mountain untill its at 45 degrees.
you have a basic framework of the pod, with a conformal stage, once it exits though a plastic end cap at 1170 km/h, the framework detaches and the stage goes on to orbit. Hyperlaunch
HyperLaunch.jpg
Yes I am a recovering space cadet.
 
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Compton_effect said:
The pressure inside will be about 1/6'th of surface pressure of Mars. Thats probably as high as the altitude Baungarter jumped from.
And I think the coil analogy with the Tesla ones were used to explain how they would work. Still - this system would have a lot of excess capacity. Johannesburg is at 1753m and about 497 km away. That climb up the escarpment would be a tough one.
...
A much shorter Hyperloop system - say 20 km, starting at a shallow angle, then increasing up a mountain untill its at 45 degrees.
you have a basic framework of the pod, with a conformal stage, once it exits though a plastic end cap at 1170 km/h, the framework detaches and the stage goes on to orbit. Hyperlaunch
View attachment 65253
Yes I am a recovering space cadet.
Click to expand...

That is actually quite an interesting thing.. I wonder if it would be possible to do actually...
 
I think the energy required to get to 1170km/h is a tiny fraction of the energy required to achieve orbital speeds. Probably not worth the expense.
 
Sinbad said:
I think the energy required to get to 1170km/h is a tiny fraction of the energy required to achieve orbital speeds. Probably not worth the expense.
Click to expand...

Agreed. But it would be interesting to find out.
And I'd bet that Elon originally got the Hyperloop idea as a 1'st stage launcher for SpaceX and shelved it as impractical.
 
Sinbad said:
I think the energy required to get to 1170km/h is a tiny fraction of the energy required to achieve orbital speeds. Probably not worth the expense.
Click to expand...

Quite probably... but its an interesting thought experiment to see what it COULD do for launch capabilities, it might be able to reduce a significant portion of the initial fuel load.
 
There'll always be resistance, but that's hardly a reason not to do it. If we didn't do these things we'd all still be travelling on carts (or walking since who wants to trust risky things like these newfangled carts). If the human race only did what had definite quantifiable returns we'd have no science, no infrastructure.
 
ToxicBunny said:
If they built something like that I could instantly start working in say Sandton but living in Durban.. and my commute would be a similar time frame as living in JHB and working in JHB, or living in DBN and working in DBN... my current commute in DBN is about 45 minutes either way.
Click to expand...

Well get over it because it's not going to happen. and if you tally up all your commute hours you'll see you are spending half the year watching your life drain away into mediocrity.
 
Compton_effect said:
The pressure inside will be about 1/6'th of surface pressure of Mars. Thats probably as high as the altitude Baungarter jumped from.
And I think the coil analogy with the Tesla ones were used to explain how they would work. Still - this system would have a lot of excess capacity. Johannesburg is at 1753m and about 497 km away. That climb up the escarpment would be a tough one.
...
A much shorter Hyperloop system - say 20 km, starting at a shallow angle, then increasing up a mountain untill its at 45 degrees.
you have a basic framework of the pod, with a conformal stage, once it exits though a plastic end cap at 1170 km/h, the framework detaches and the stage goes on to orbit. Hyperlaunch
View attachment 65253
Yes I am a recovering space cadet.
Click to expand...

Earth escape velocity is over 40 000km/h though
 
ToxicBunny said:
An amendment to my very rough calcs...

According to the documents, its 7.4m people each way, so 14.8m people in total.. That changes the theoretical costings quite significantly.
Click to expand...

It's really late here, so maybe I got this wrong, but I think you may still be off by a factor of 10 in your calcs:
$6000m total / 5 years => $1200M dollars per year needs to be recovered
$1200M / 14.8M people => approx. $81 per person.
 
Hosehead said:
Well get over it because it's not going to happen. and if you tally up all your commute hours you'll see you are spending half the year watching your life drain away into mediocrity.
Click to expand...

Oh I know it will never happen, but it would be a nice thing if it did...

I wish I could spend less time in the commute, but I can't afford to live near the office.. the house prices are just beyond insane.
 
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