It's interesting that the biggest line item in the costing is not the tube, nor the capsules, nor the vacuum pumps, nor the solar panels, nor the land, but the concrete pylons that support the tube - about two-fifths of the total. The pylons are planned to be 30m apart, making for about 25000 of them.
Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
11–20 of 202 posts
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#12[deleted]
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#13Claustrophobes will not be eager to travel in this fashion.
Travelling in any kind of tunnel is no more claustrophobic than this is it?
"The maximum width is 4.43 ft (1.35 m) and maximum height is 6.11 ft (1.10 m)."
Yeah, that's a little bit more claustrophobic than your average underground train.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#14Claustrophobes will not be eager to travel in this fashion.
Travelling in any kind of tunnel is no more claustrophobic than this is it?
The passenger compartment mockups indicate there won't be enough room to sit upright. I'm sure the seats will make this comfortable for people of average stature who aren't afflicted with claustrophobia, but there will be much less room than tunnels that accommodate e.g. upright humans or subway trains.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Travelling in any kind of tunnel is no more claustrophobic than this is it?
"The maximum width is 4.43 ft (1.35 m) and maximum height is 6.11 ft (1.10 m)." Yeah, that's a little bit more claustrophobic than your average underground train.
But less claustrophobic than sitting in a car.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#16I wonder what they have in mind for how stations will offload/onload capsules onto the loop. That will be heck of an engineering problem to solve - ultra high safety, pressurized environment, fast turnaround times...
My initial thought was they would have switches on the track like a normal train and capsules would veer off. But I bet they would come to a stop on there own and then get lifted vertically off the train and into a decompression area where they'd cue up.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#17The focus from people on bathrooms is puzzling to me. I've been on buses, without facilities, that go for hours without stopping. This is a 35 minute ride with restricted movement, if you greatly fear being able to hold it for that long, there are other, less efficient methods of transport to accommodate you.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#18Claustrophobes will not be eager to travel in this fashion.
Exactly. I think this fails because of comfort requirements. If you stacked people inside airplanes like this, I'm sure they would be 10x more efficient and competitive with this proposal.
I think this would be great for journeys of _under_ 30 minutes. And it wouldn't be for everyone, for sure -- so starting off as a niche transportation mode is not a great start.
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#19What's the ideal format for an open source whitepaper? Certainly not PDF. Straight up HTML on Github?
Re: Hyperloop Alpha [pdf]
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Travelling in any kind of tunnel is no more claustrophobic than this is it?
The passenger compartment mockups indicate there won't be enough room to sit upright . I'm sure the seats will make this comfortable for people of average stature who aren't afflicted with claustrophobia, but there will be much less room than tunnels that accommodate e.g. upright humans or subway trains.
Strap on an Oculus, and simulate a train car. Or, project windows onto the interiors. (Since we're talking future technology)