Hyperloop

[jcstp]

sounds a lot like PRT (Personal Rapid Transit)
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Information


home | Ultra Global PRT

[TEG]

From 1992: Popular Science - Google Books





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From 2004: Popular Science 4000 MPH vac train.

(I know, Hyperloop is "not a vac train"...)

[Yggdrasill]

I have one idea about what it could be.

If you have a row of towers, where there's a "railgun" at the top of each tower, you could be able to fire a capsule from tower to tower. The towers could be spaced at just the right distances, so that the capsule doesn't have time to veer off course before the next tower corrects the trajectory. And the faster the capsule goes, the more momentum, and the further apart the towers can be. This reduces land usage, so it could potentially be cheaper than rail in populated areas, and it should be able to achieve fairly high speeds.

I'm not sure why it wouldn't be able to crash, though.

[TEG]

...Aircraft are discouraged from flying between the towers because a human filled projectile could be speeding past at supersonic speeds...

[Yggdrasill]

I have one idea about what it could be.

If you have a row of towers, where there's a "railgun" at the top of each tower, you could be able to fire a capsule from tower to tower. The towers could be spaced at just the right distances, so that the capsule doesn't have time to veer off course before the next tower corrects the trajectory. And the faster the capsule goes, the more momentum, and the further apart the towers can be. This reduces land usage, so it could potentially be cheaper than rail in populated areas, and it should be able to achieve fairly high speeds.

Or another idea:

If you remove the railguns, string a cable between the towers, use magnetic bearings to levitate the cable, and accelerate the cable to supersonic speeds, you get a system that is less prone to crash, can store energy in the cable, and pods could be able to magnetically attach to the cable to whizz from one station to the next. This should also allow towers to be further apart, at least at slower speeds near stations. As the cable itself has oodles of momentum, the centripetal force would want to push the cable into a perfect circle, so it might be necessary to built the towers in an approximately circular shape. Two loops of cable would be good, one in each direction.

[WhiteKnight]

Two loops of cable would be good, one in each direction.

Maybe that's why it would be called hyperLOOP.

[RDoc]

Or another idea:

If you remove the railguns, string a cable between the towers, use magnetic bearings to levitate the cable, and accelerate the cable to supersonic speeds, you get a system that is less prone to crash, can store energy in the cable, and pods could be able to magnetically attach to the cable to whizz from one station to the next. This should also allow towers to be further apart, at least at slower speeds near stations. As the cable itself has oodles of momentum, the centripetal force would want to push the cable into a perfect circle, so it might be necessary to built the towers in an approximately circular shape. Two loops of cable would be good, one in each direction.

To do that though, the cables would have to be moving at orbital speed, that is around mach 22, which would be tough in the atmosphere. There' a proposal for a space launch system like that: Lofstrom Loop

[Yggdrasill]

To do that though, the cables would have to be moving at orbital speed, that is around mach 22, which would be tough in the atmosphere. There' a proposal for a space launch system like that: Lofstrom Loop

No, you wouldn't need it to go that fast. Its purpose wouldn't be to launch anything into orbit, the purpose would merely be to move stuff from one place to the next at high speeds. It would basically be a suped-up gondola lift, with cables moving at supersonic speeds (or more realistically, high sub-sonic).

[keys]

I'm still a skeptic about any existing alternative (vac tunnel, maglev, tube transport etc).. Main concern is amount of raw material and therewith costs. Also, you probably don't want to elevate the system since this causes major alignment issues (specifically at mach 1~2).

The ground-based concorde is interesting. I think you could dig a long ditch in the ground and reinforce & cover it with some prefab sections. This way you could solve or at least alleviate concerns regarding the sonic boom. Next you would have this some sort of cart that 'floats' through the tunnel. Propulsion could be done using a supersonic electric turbine powered from the structure itself. The knowledge gathered from creating this propulsion system could also be used inside an electric supersonic plane (which would use similar turbines). Not sure about the way to store massive amounts of energy without batteries.

[jeff_adams]

If I were Elon, I would think seriously about leveraging the DOE loan pay off for Hyperloop right now. He's going to be the darling of Washington. Here's what I would recommend:

Approach Obama Administration and offer to develop Hyperloop. Pledge 250 million if the government will match funds (he could easily sell some Tesla and Solar City shares to raise his portion right now). Hyperloop will need government assistance with Eminent Domain issues and approvals. 500m would be a great start. Elon can form a "think tank" and guide them in the direction he thinks is best. His star is as bright as it's ever been. Now is the time to leverage that star power