Where's the buzz about Elon Musk's "hyperloop" high speed rail alternative?

[Z]

ET wrote:
Instead of using a complicated pneumatic/vacuum system, why not just use water?

Water and other dense fluids run into erosional issues at high velocities inside pipes, plus the extra energy required to get a large mass of water moving - hence some of the advantage of using a partial vacuum system.

[davester]

Z wrote:
[quote=ET]
Instead of using a complicated pneumatic/vacuum system, why not just use water?

Water and other dense fluids run into erosional issues at high velocities inside pipes, plus the extra energy required to get a large mass of water moving - hence some of the advantage of using a partial vacuum system.
Yes, I think Elon's on the right track. Eustace's idea is interesting, but I think it would doom the project to low speeds, which is not the right target. I think the main focus should be to supplant air travel, which is environmentally costly. The reasons jets fly high is so that they can get into a somewhat evacuated environment to reduce energy expenditure at high speeds. Elon is just trying to bring that environment down to ground level and at the same time reducing the need for all that fuel needed to get an extremely heavy jet plus a few passengers up to 36,000 feet. The basic concept sounds like a no-brainer to me, which is probably why it has been dreamed of in so many sci-fi and futurist stories of the past. The paper I linked to contains some basic engineering considerations that sound fairly well thought out. The question is whether there are significant engineering or cost obstacles that affect the viability of this untried idea.

[Black]

davester wrote:
[quote=Black]A little touchy today, are we?
I am sorry a thread with "Musk" in the subject line was so very obtuse...
perhaps this thread might be more to your liking?
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1598085

Not touchy at all. I just thought you might want some input as to why folks (myself included) weren't clicking on that thread if they weren't interested in fish. Your newer thread link has a much better title.
And maybe I didn't really care if most or all members missed it. You'd have to have read the fish thread through to understand my intent, and if you didn't, who cares...
I only included the link because you felt the need to cry "where's the buzz" in your subject line.
How ridiculous that half this thread is about my choice of subject line.

[space-time]

Black!

[davester]

Another interesting aspect of this concept is that the swiss already designed a "vacutrain" system much like it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissmetro . However, this system wasn't built and the organization was disbanded in 2009 due to lack of interest in the particular project. They apparently quite far along with the project (i.e. proof of concept, not actually building it).

Oh, one more thing....why on earth did Musk call it "hyperloop"? Where's the loop? For that matter, where's the hyper?

[decay]

spend the War On Drugs budget on it.

http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.

[GGD]

davester wrote:
Oh, one more thing....why on earth did Musk call it "hyperloop"? Where's the loop? For that matter, where's the hyper?

I've assumed the loop refers to the two tubes, one in each direction and the continuous loop that it forms.

And the "hype" is the press release.

[ztirffritz]

If you want to go down that road...

We probably could have outfitted Hyperloop routes from LA to NYC, Atlanta, New Oleans, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and back to LA for what we've spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Probably several times over actually. Recent estimates put the cost at $3-$4 Trillion. I'm not making any political comments pro/con war, but it does put the numbers in perspective.

decay wrote:
spend the War On Drugs budget on it.

http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.

[vision63]

ztirffritz wrote:
If you want to go down that road...

We probably could have outfitted Hyperloop routes from LA to NYC, Atlanta, New Oleans, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and back to LA for what we've spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Probably several times over actually. Recent estimates put the cost at $3-$4 Trillion. I'm not making any political comments pro/con war, but it does put the numbers in perspective.

[quote=decay]
spend the War On Drugs budget on it.

http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.

We could wrangle the funds from the impending Iranian invasion and use 'em for cool projects like this.

[Z]

vision63 wrote:
[quote=ztirffritz]
If you want to go down that road...

We probably could have outfitted Hyperloop routes from LA to NYC, Atlanta, New Oleans, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and back to LA for what we've spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Probably several times over actually. Recent estimates put the cost at $3-$4 Trillion. I'm not making any political comments pro/con war, but it does put the numbers in perspective.

[quote=decay]
spend the War On Drugs budget on it.

http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.

Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.

We could wrangle the funds from the impending Iranian invasion and use 'em for cool projects like this.
And thus we slide to the other side...