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Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

techcrunch.com

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Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#21

Post by Analemma_ »

kumarski wrote: post #8

Something I wrote a while ago.... w/ back of the napkin calculations....... Why I wouldn’t invest a money into Hyperloop - Stabilizing a single fault line risk pylon is more than $250K. - How many million are needed for vacuum pumps to evacuate 100+ million cubic feet of of pipe to 100 Pa? - Hot air discharge needs to go somewhere. For every 1 bar pressure, you need ~200 to ~400 cubic meters of volume which is larger…

When Musk first said that an LASF Hyperloop could be built for 1/8th the cost of the equivalent HSR, I chuckled and then waited for the punchline, which still hasn’t arrived.

It’s a cool idea and I do want to see more prototypes and feasibility studies, but people need to get off the hype train (no pun intended) and be realistic about the cost.

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#22

Post by TremendousJudge »

Faaak wrote: post #6
sschueller wrote: post #3

When are we going to address the elephants in the room? Just the tube alone: - largest pressure vessel in the world. How do you keep it at near vacuum? - Thermal expansion over such a large distance, especially if the top of the tube is warmer than the bottom. - Safety, how does an evacuation look like if the tubes are sealed?. There are many more. Some how I feel like this is a "pipe" dream. Lots of marketing, very…

The CERN LHC tube is a 27km circle of vacuum and near-zero temperature, and they don't seem to have a problem with that (granted, they had some but it's solved now). Frankly, yes, there may be issues, but I'm confident that the Human race will be able to overcome those.

What about building a high speed train? Proven technology, works in a lot of countries. LA to SF in 2 hours. Is it really that bad?

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#23

Post by rco8786 »

batrat wrote: post #16

I see so many negative comments about this, but in my opinion everything has to start somewhere. It doesn't matter how crazy and impossible it looks, it will be done eventually (and we have plenty of examples). Maybe we will not teleport in 2 seconds across the globe or this project will die, who knows if we don't try. A little bit of optimism doesn't hurt. Just saying. And for Virgin, it's not my money, if they want…

Right. Could you imagine what people thought/said around the advent of commercial airliners or heck, even automobiles?

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#24

Post by Analemma_ »

iamgopal wrote: post #20
ginko wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LHC's vacuum pipes are 6.3 cm in diameter..

What, really? What's with all those mega photos we see everywhere ?

Most of that is the magnets around the beam tube, with the associated power and refrigeration equipment. The beam tube itself is quite small.

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#25

Post by kaolti »

batrat wrote: post #16

I see so many negative comments about this, but in my opinion everything has to start somewhere. It doesn't matter how crazy and impossible it looks, it will be done eventually (and we have plenty of examples). Maybe we will not teleport in 2 seconds across the globe or this project will die, who knows if we don't try. A little bit of optimism doesn't hurt. Just saying. And for Virgin, it's not my money, if they want…

Totally with you.

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#28

Post by TremendousJudge »

dmix wrote: post #15
sschueller wrote: post #3

When are we going to address the elephants in the room? Just the tube alone: - largest pressure vessel in the world. How do you keep it at near vacuum? - Thermal expansion over such a large distance, especially if the top of the tube is warmer than the bottom. - Safety, how does an evacuation look like if the tubes are sealed?. There are many more. Some how I feel like this is a "pipe" dream. Lots of marketing, very…

> Lots of marketing, very little engineering. It started as a technical whitepaper, not a marketing campaign, and multiple companies are building experimental models. I don't think this critique is accurate or fair. There have been far worse vapourware and hype-only concepts that haven't gotten close to hyperloop's tangible progress. No tech can be perfected from the planning stage either, it takes talent, money, and…

>it's not like there are some obvious alternatives are being neglected

A high speed train like the ones they've had in Europe for a long time? You know, the ones that regularly reach 300 km/h? If that's not fast or flashy enough for you, what about Maglev? It actually exists, and the tracks are extremely expensive even though they don't even have to maintain low air pressure

Re: Hyperloop One Becomes ‘Virgin Hyperloop One’

#30

Post by TremendousJudge »

rco8786 wrote: post #23
batrat wrote: post #16

I see so many negative comments about this, but in my opinion everything has to start somewhere. It doesn't matter how crazy and impossible it looks, it will be done eventually (and we have plenty of examples). Maybe we will not teleport in 2 seconds across the globe or this project will die, who knows if we don't try. A little bit of optimism doesn't hurt. Just saying. And for Virgin, it's not my money, if they want…

Right. Could you imagine what people thought/said around the advent of commercial airliners or heck, even automobiles?

Or turbojet trains[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbojet_train

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