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Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

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Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#31

Post by apendleton »

rayiner wrote: post #13
kiba wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX don't patent anything because they thought the Chinese would steal their technologies using the patents itself. It's a different story for Tesla Motors, though.

I think there is more "secret sauce" in Tesla than in SpaceX. SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. In any case, both are "product" companies and benefit from patents less than "design" companies. Contrast SpaceX with Mojave Aerospace Ventures (the investment vehicle that owns the Spaceship One IP developed by Scaled Composites).

So far their designs have been fairly conservative, but they've made some pretty significant advances in manufacturing process and in materials as compared to their rivals, despite their designs being relatively similar. Heavy use of friction-stir welding would be an example of the former, and the PICA-X heat shield material would be an example of the latter, and details of the former (if you watch SpaceX factory tours on youtube, etc.) are considered trade secrets that aren't shown to the public, even though they're not patented.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#32

Post by Symmetry »

_mulder_ wrote: post #23
nicktelford wrote: post #14

If this is, as it sounds, a new public transport system, it surprises me a little that he would prefer to develop it in the US. Attitudes towards public transport in general seem more favourable in the EU, Japan, China and South Korea. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I imagine getting such a system built in the EU (for example) would be easier than the US. Then again, Musk has been building a reputation with law-m…

European attitudes to public transport are certainly more receptive than those in the US. However, European attitudes to big infrastructure projects are a lot more NIMBYish. Asia could be good but then they are quite advanced with high-speed public transport anyways. Plus, Elon doesn't live in Europe or Asia, so why would he?

Europeans have problems with NIMBY, but not nearly to the extent that the US does. It takes about 1/5 as much money to construct a mile of track in France as in the US, and 1/10 in Spain. My guess is that part of the point of the Hyperloop is to get around land use restrictions by going over them, and the largest payoff for that would be in the US where conventional land-based transport is hardest.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#34

Post by stcredzero »

amitparikh wrote: post #20
rayiner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is more "secret sauce" in Tesla than in SpaceX. SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. In any case, both are "product" companies and benefit from patents less than "design" companies. Contrast SpaceX with Mojave Aerospace Ventures (the investment vehicle that owns the Spaceship One IP developed by Scaled Composites).

> SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. Like the other reply mentioned, they are certainly working on some technologies that are starkly less conservative. One example is the Grasshopper [1], a reusable first stage that is capable of returning to the launchpad under controlled burn. [1] Here's the most recent 325m test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGimzB5QM1M

It's long been argued by Jerry Pournelle and others that a fully reusable spacecraft could be built by being "starkly conservative" in materials and technology, but using modern construction techniques.

See The Rocket Company

Grasshopper seems to be following this play book.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#36

Post by the_watcher »

jvm wrote: post #30
nicktelford wrote: post #14

If this is, as it sounds, a new public transport system, it surprises me a little that he would prefer to develop it in the US. Attitudes towards public transport in general seem more favourable in the EU, Japan, China and South Korea. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I imagine getting such a system built in the EU (for example) would be easier than the US. Then again, Musk has been building a reputation with law-m…

I think he specifically wants California to build this instead of wasting $100bn on the HSR project. I'm sure he'll be open to building hyperloops elsewhere as well.

If he can stop California from lighting that $100bn on fire chasing HSR from Bakersfield to Fresno, then this will all be worth it. I voted against all of those propositions, but I'd have reconsidered if you told me Musk would be the one playing with the money.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#37

Post by criley2 »

amitparikh wrote: post #20
rayiner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is more "secret sauce" in Tesla than in SpaceX. SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. In any case, both are "product" companies and benefit from patents less than "design" companies. Contrast SpaceX with Mojave Aerospace Ventures (the investment vehicle that owns the Spaceship One IP developed by Scaled Composites).

> SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. Like the other reply mentioned, they are certainly working on some technologies that are starkly less conservative. One example is the Grasshopper [1], a reusable first stage that is capable of returning to the launchpad under controlled burn. [1] Here's the most recent 325m test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGimzB5QM1M

It's worth mentioning that their "less conservative" VTVL rocket is currently hitting about 10% of the DC-X's ~3100m record.

While the grasshopper is very cool, the concept of a VTVL rocket is not new. Hell, the Apollo Lunar Module technically landed and took off afterwards, as well!

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#38

Post by dfxm12 »

drpgq wrote: post #2

I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.

The intersection of billionaires and people with the ability to try interesting, off the wall projects probably isn't very big.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#40

Post by salimmadjd »

Every startup entrepreneur should learn image making and PR from Musk. For someone who is not very eloquent and a bit tongue-tied he has done an amazing job to become known as the premier visionaries of our time.

This also includes making changes to his physical appearance by looking at his old images [1], [2] as well his name brand.

[1] http://www.stepbrother.co.za/images/musk2.jpg

[2] http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18p2ht1rsfinyjpg/ku-xlarge.j...

edit: line breaks added

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