We Think We Know What Elon Musk's Hyperloop Is, And How It Can Get You From LA To San

[ScienceRocks]

We Think We Know What Elon Musk's Hyperloop Is, And How It Can Get You From LA To San Francisco In 30 Minutes

Tesla founder Elon Musk has been teasing an exciting idea for a new form of transportation for the last year.

He calls it the "Hyperloop" and he says it's better than a bullet train. The Hyperloop would get people to Los Angeles from San Francisco in 30 minutes.

However, he's been vague about how he's going to make the Hyperloop a reality.

The closest to detail he's gotten is when he said the Hyperloop is a "cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table."

He's been so vague that it seems like what he's talking about can't possibly be real.

But it can be real.

In 1972, the Rand Corporation released a paper written by physicist R.M. Salter that detailed an underground tube system that could send people from Los Angeles to New York City in 21 minutes.

He called it the Very High Speed Transit System, or VHST. (Not nearly as catchy a name as Hyperloop.)

Salter concluded in his paper that "the technical problems associated with the VHST development are manifold and difficult — but no scientific breakthroughs are required."

In other words, the VHST isn't just some far-out dream. It can be a reality if we address some political and construction issues.

"The general principles are fairly straightforward: electromagnetically levitated and propelled cars in an evacuated tunnel," wrote Salter.

Read more: What Is Elon Musk's Hyperloop - Business Insider

 

[ScienceRocks]

San Francisco to L.A. in 30 Mins. With Proposed New Transportation System

San Francisco to L.A. in 30 Mins. With Proposed New Transportation System

Commuting is a way of life for most Bay Area residents. Many people are accustomed to an hour commute each way without traffic. Some people even commute to Southern California several times a month, spending several hours each way either in the car or fighting through airports. What if there was an alternative to flights and car rides? If it was up to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a Colorado company, an answer could come sooner than we think.

Why not this?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Hyperloop To Start Testing This Year. Theoretical Speeds Of 4,000 MPH. (VIDEO)

America has been embroiled in a debate over the wisdom of spending billions of dollars on a national high-speed rail network. A small Colorado company called ET3 has other ideas though, calling for a 4,000 mph “Hyperloop” system of vacuum tubes that could connect New York with LA in under an hour.

The “hyperloop” idea has been around for decades, and was most recently floated by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, though it is unclear if he is at all involved with ET3’s project. Called “evacuated tube transport,” the hyperloop system would essentially shoot six-person capsules in a frictionless vacuum tube, allowing for theoretical speeds of up to 4,000 mph. Talk about making air travel obsolete.

Hyperloop To Start Testing This Year. Theoretical Speeds Of 4,000 MPH. (VIDEO) | CleanTechnica

 

[flacaltenn]

I've never seen one of those cannisters in the bank drive-thrus approach 4000mph..
And IF you could do that --- you could also power most of S. Cali by putting turbines in there to
feast on the vacuum...

I think scaling this concept up is gonna dim this one somewhat...

Hope Musk saves the box it came in.. He's gonna need someplace to live when his money is gone...

 

[westwall]

I've never seen one of those cannisters in the bank drive-thrus approach 4000mph..
And IF you could do that --- you could also power most of S. Cali by putting turbines in there to
feast on the vacuum...

I think scaling this concept up is gonna dim this one somewhat...

Hope Musk saves the box it came in.. He's gonna need someplace to live when his money is gone...

Oh, he'll be fine. He uses other peoples money.

 

[whitehall]

Funny how the bi-polar left wants to dumb down energy technology and at the same time they have grand ideas for taxpayer funded experiments.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Funny how the extreme right doesn't want to keep America the leader in science or technology.

 

[flacaltenn]

Funny how the extreme right doesn't want to keep America the leader in science or technology.

I'd rather skip directly to transporter technology from the SS Enterprise. This crap is too crude..

 

[westwall]

Funny how the extreme right doesn't want to keep America the leader in science or technology.

Wrong as usual. We just want them to use their own money dear. That way we actually GET something useful. Ever wonder why the solar industry is stagnant? They have no risk so why try and make anything better. The government bails them out whenever they lose. What's the incentive to actually work hard and come up with something good?

 

[flacaltenn]

Lemme justify the previous comment Matthew... Because most folks don't know the history of this
idea...

Tube Freight Transportation - Vol. 58 · No. 2 - Public Roads

Tube transportation has a history that extends back at least 200 years. During this period, systems for both passengers and freight have been built and operated. Some are in operation today. In addition, there have been many more proposals that were never built. All of the historical tube transportation systems were pneumatically powered.

George Medhurst, a London businessman, is considered the earliest proponent of pneumatic-powered railways although there were a few earlier, brief suggestions from others. He first published a freight proposal in 1810, a passenger proposal in 1812, and a more comprehensive set of proposals in 1827.

Despite four demonstration systems, including a 95-m (312-ft), underground system built in New York City in 1869-70, no large-size tube transportation system has been introduced into common carrier service. The primary result of this activity was to lend support to the development of underground electric railway systems for urban passenger transportation. However, small diameter pneumatic pipelines have been providing reliable freight transportation around the world for more than 150 years.

Common applications of pneumatic pipelines before World War II were the high-priority movement of documents and parts in industrial environments and movement of letters and telegrams under city streets to bypass congestion. These systems were built with tubes ranging from 5 to 20 centimeters (2 to 8 inches) in diameter. Such systems are still being built today to expedite small shipments.

After World War II, larger pneumatic systems were developed and built in Japan and Russia to move bulk materials such as limestone and garbage. These systems had considerably greater throughput as a result of both their increased diameters of 0.9 to 1.2 m (3 to 4 ft) and their mode of operation, which allowed more capsules to move through the tube at one time. By the early 1970s, several groups began to give consideration to the use of these pipeline designs for common carrier, general merchandise freight applications using tubes 1.2 to 1.8 m (4 to 6 ft) in diameter.

OR

www.nycsubway.org: Beach Pneumatic Transit

Probably the most well known of these early attempts, at least in terms of subway lore, was an 1870 demonstration line, the Beach Pneumatic Transit. Alfred Ely Beach, inventor and editor of Scientific American, had designed a pneumatic (air-driven) system which he demonstrated at the American Institute Fair in 1867, and he thought it viable for transit operation in underground tunnels. He applied for a permit from the Tammany Hall city government, and after being denied, decided to build the line in secrecy, in an attempt to show that subterranean transit was practical. (He actually did receive a permit to built a pneumatic package delivery system, originally of two small tunnels from Warren St. to Cedar St., later amended to be one large tunnel, to "simplify construction" of what he really intended to build.)

The Beach tunnel was constructed in only 58 days, starting under Warren Street and Broadway, directly across from City Hall. The station was under the south sidewalk of Warren Street just west of the Broadway corner. The single track tunnel ran east into Broadway, curved south, and ran down the middle of Broadway to Murray Street, a distance of one block, about 300 feet in all. The subway opened to the public on February 26, 1870.

Operated as a demonstration from 1870 to 1873, the short tunnel had only the one station and train car. While frequently mentioned as an important early development in New York City's transit history, it was merely a curiosity. It is unclear that such a system could have been practical on a large scale. Smaller tube systems are used in buildings for mail delivery, but a rail-car sized system has never been developed. The perfection of electric multiple-unit traction and electric locomotives came about so quickly after this experiment that it wasn't deemed worthwhile to even try an expanded pneumatic system.

So I wasn't being flippant when I joked about the StarFleet transporter being a better scientific option.. I knew some of the history behind this..

 

[Political Junky]

Funny how the extreme right doesn't want to keep America the leader in science or technology.

I'd rather skip directly to transporter technology from the SS Enterprise. This crap is too crude..

It worked for Eisenhower, who gave us the transcontinental highway system, and Lincoln, who gave us the transcontinental railroad.

 

[westwall]

Funny how the extreme right doesn't want to keep America the leader in science or technology.

I'd rather skip directly to transporter technology from the SS Enterprise. This crap is too crude..

It worked for Eisenhower, who gave us the transcontinental highway system, and Lincoln, who gave us the transcontinental railroad.

"Gave" them to us? We damned well paid for them sweety. No one gave us anything.

 

[Political Junky]

I'd rather skip directly to transporter technology from the SS Enterprise. This crap is too crude..

It worked for Eisenhower, who gave us the transcontinental highway system, and Lincoln, who gave us the transcontinental railroad.

"Gave" them to us? We damned well paid for them sweety. No one gave us anything.

In both instances we were in debt and were pulled out by putting people to work.

 

[westwall]

It worked for Eisenhower, who gave us the transcontinental highway system, and Lincoln, who gave us the transcontinental railroad.

"Gave" them to us? We damned well paid for them sweety. No one gave us anything.

In both instances we were in debt and were pulled out by putting people to work.

Really? We were out of debt? When? The last time we were clear was prior to the Indian Wars if my memory is correct.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I've never seen one of those cannisters in the bank drive-thrus approach 4000mph..
And IF you could do that --- you could also power most of S. Cali by putting turbines in there to
feast on the vacuum...

I think scaling this concept up is gonna dim this one somewhat...

Hope Musk saves the box it came in.. He's gonna need someplace to live when his money is gone...

Pneumatic tubes at the bank have absolutely nothing to do with the way this would work.

The train wouldn't be pulled down the tube by turbines, as it is in pneumatic systems.

The train would be propelled by electromagnets - which would float the train in the middle of the tunnel, which would be a vacuum. It would require some turbines to clear the air from the tube initially, but airlocks would keep the seepage low enough.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Eon Musk is this generations John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, Bill gates, Steve Jobs, etc.

This guy is amazing. I want to see this dude move us ahead as fast as the men above did between 1880 to 1920.


About The Men Who Built America - History.com

 

[flacaltenn]

I've never seen one of those cannisters in the bank drive-thrus approach 4000mph..
And IF you could do that --- you could also power most of S. Cali by putting turbines in there to
feast on the vacuum...

I think scaling this concept up is gonna dim this one somewhat...

Hope Musk saves the box it came in.. He's gonna need someplace to live when his money is gone...

Pneumatic tubes at the bank have absolutely nothing to do with the way this would work.

The train wouldn't be pulled down the tube by turbines, as it is in pneumatic systems.

The train would be propelled by electromagnets - which would float the train in the middle of the tunnel, which would be a vacuum. It would require some turbines to clear the air from the tube initially, but airlocks would keep the seepage low enough.

Confusion due to breathless speculation.. The CleanTechnica link to HyperLoop gives a disclaimer that this is NOT what Musk is working on.. Then proceeds to describe ET3 which is PURELY pneumatic transport (no mag lev).. These folks are making similiar claims to Musk and WITHOUT the added expense of mag lev cost and energy consumption..

I'm gonna preserve energy here and WAIT until Musk figures out what he is ACTUALLY interested in doing.. He's a wiz at keeping his name in the press for ideas that have yet to be communicated.. Much like the "transport of the future" hype that preceded the SegWay.

I wish Matthew would chill out and let me be the starry eyed optimist for a day...

 

[westwall]

Eon Musk is this generations John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, Bill gates, Steve Jobs, etc.

This guy is amazing. I want to see this dude move us ahead as fast as the men above did between 1880 to 1920.


About The Men Who Built America - History.com

Ummmm, no, he's not. He has had nowhere near the impact on society that any of those men did, or have done.

 

[flacaltenn]

Eon Musk is this generations John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, Bill gates, Steve Jobs, etc.

This guy is amazing. I want to see this dude move us ahead as fast as the men above did between 1880 to 1920.


About The Men Who Built America - History.com

Ummmm, no, he's not. He has had nowhere near the impact on society that any of those men did, or have done.

When my grandkids are getting diplomas from Musk U.. We'll chat about greatness...

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Eon Musk is this generations John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, Bill gates, Steve Jobs, etc.

This guy is amazing. I want to see this dude move us ahead as fast as the men above did between 1880 to 1920.


About The Men Who Built America - History.com

Ummmm, no, he's not. He has had nowhere near the impact on society that any of those men did, or have done.

That will depend on how his projects work out.