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Deadkndys420
The Psychedelic Messiah
Registered: 05/08/12
Posts: 4,405
Loc: In the land of ooo
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Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport
#17233109 - 11/17/12 12:15 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Taking to the stage at this year's Economist Innovation Awards, Elon Musk of SpaceX let slip a few more choice details about his "Hyperloop" high-speed transportation system that would see commuters travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in a mere 30 minutes, describing the concept for the first time as a cross between Concorde and railgun.
During a show-stealing acceptance speech, Musk explained that, in order to be worth while, the technology must exceed the merits of existing transport systems by being much faster and cheaper while remaining weatherproof and, "ideally," crash proof. "Ideally, he added again, for tongue-in-cheek emphasis.
Musk further hinted that the Hyperloop transport would leave as you arrived to board, and have to deal with "right of way" issues. It may sound crazy, but there was a time he talked this way about commercial spaceflight and we know how that turned out.
Musk also confirmed his ambition to die on Mars, though not, he quipped, upon impact.
Color us intrigued...
Does anyone else hope this will become reality?
-------------------- Almond Flour said: Thats right. I take it up the ass on a daily. It feels great to finally let this out How to use PGP encryption The Stoner's Cookbook
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Sell Your Soul
Nutmeg shaman
Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 40,819
Loc: Over there
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: Deadkndys420]
#17233322 - 11/17/12 01:09 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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This thread was moved from The Pub.
Reason: By request.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,704
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: Deadkndys420]
#17233600 - 11/17/12 02:27 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yeah, sure, but the complete lack of technical details puts this firmly in the pipe dream area.
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Kilgore Trout
Yachts on the reg
Registered: 07/09/12
Posts: 9,863
Loc: Metro City, USA
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: koraks]
#17233621 - 11/17/12 02:32 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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This is coming from someone with absolutely no background in physics, but wouldn't traveling that fast have a severe impact on the human body? I mean we weren't meant to be traveling at excessive speeds so it would probably cause some sort of internal damage.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,704
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: Kilgore Trout]
#17233627 - 11/17/12 02:34 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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As long as the acceleration doesn't exceed, say, 3G, there's no problem. Speed does no damage. Acceleration does. F=m*a, remember?
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Kilgore Trout
Yachts on the reg
Registered: 07/09/12
Posts: 9,863
Loc: Metro City, USA
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: koraks]
#17233641 - 11/17/12 02:37 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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That makes sense. Thanks for spreading the knowledge.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: koraks]
#17234006 - 11/17/12 07:17 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
koraks said: As long as the acceleration doesn't exceed, say, 3G, there's no problem. Speed does no damage. Acceleration does. F=m*a, remember?
Actually, the human body can withstand a lot more than 3G, especially if the body is positioned right. Experiments on untrained people (ie. not fighter pilots) have shown that we can withstand at least 17G for several minutes sustained. Peak G forces can be quite a bit higher - at least 46G.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,704
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: trendal]
#17234326 - 11/17/12 09:15 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yeah, but anything above 3G would be really uncomfortable if you're just travelling from LA to SF. But I agree that 5G or so won't cause damage.
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist
Registered: 09/04/02
Posts: 3,060
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
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Re: Concorde meets railgun SpaceX founder's plan for future rapid transport (moved) [Re: trendal]
#17235077 - 11/17/12 11:38 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
trendal said:
Quote:
koraks said: As long as the acceleration doesn't exceed, say, 3G, there's no problem. Speed does no damage. Acceleration does. F=m*a, remember?
Actually, the human body can withstand a lot more than 3G, especially if the body is positioned right. Experiments on untrained people (ie. not fighter pilots) have shown that we can withstand at least 17G for several minutes sustained. Peak G forces can be quite a bit higher - at least 46G.
In a lot of the experiments that those numbers came from, a lot of shit got fucked up (broken bones, detached retinas). I don't think there is enough data to compute some kind of "LD50" for accelerations along the various axes of the body. I'm sure a lot of people have died at accelerations less than 46G though, probably many at less than 17G as well, though I can't back that up.
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