FWIW I think there’s still some merit in maglev vactrains that aren’t tied to someone who was only pushing it to get public infrastructure projects cancelled with the goal of selling more cars.
At least there are seemingly serious academics and engineers still researching and developing the concept anyway.
I’m no authority on anything involved in such an idea, but I just can’t imagine how the economics of a vacuum tunnel could be viable. The maintenance costs on constantly running lots of industrial scale vacuums sounds crazy expensive. I hate trying to keep good suction out my vacuum cleaner and imagine at huge scales things get harder, not easier. Maybe there are clever people who have a solution for that and it’s not a big deal though. No clue.
What if instead of using a vacuum and hovering, it was just a low friction contact instead? Like say steel wheels on steel tracks. You could digitally or even physically tie the cars together so you can adjust the length of it based on demand.
Not to speak of the fact that things at that scale never stay in place, and cracks and fissures will inevitably form. With the pressure of a vacuum it could be catastrophic.
FWIW I think there’s still some merit in maglev vactrains that aren’t tied to someone who was only pushing it to get public infrastructure projects cancelled with the goal of selling more cars.
At least there are seemingly serious academics and engineers still researching and developing the concept anyway.
I’m no authority on anything involved in such an idea, but I just can’t imagine how the economics of a vacuum tunnel could be viable. The maintenance costs on constantly running lots of industrial scale vacuums sounds crazy expensive. I hate trying to keep good suction out my vacuum cleaner and imagine at huge scales things get harder, not easier. Maybe there are clever people who have a solution for that and it’s not a big deal though. No clue.
What if instead of using a vacuum and hovering, it was just a low friction contact instead? Like say steel wheels on steel tracks. You could digitally or even physically tie the cars together so you can adjust the length of it based on demand.
Shit, derived the train again
Not to speak of the fact that things at that scale never stay in place, and cracks and fissures will inevitably form. With the pressure of a vacuum it could be catastrophic.
The vacuum problems kill the Hyperloop design just like they kill any major mass launcher ideas from Earth. On the Moon both will work great.
Mass rail transit itself is something that ought to be more wide spread. Just not like that.