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Elon Musk (Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors) will unveil designs for a solar-powered inter-city passenger transport system by Aug. 12.

 

Musk claimed that his imagined train system would go "3 or 4 times faster than the [California] bullet train" or twice the speed of an aircraft, shuttling people from LA to San Francisco in under 30 minutes

 

Read about it here.

 

Paypal is unbelievably successful.  SpaceX has done everything it promised up to this point.  Tesla makes a viable (albeit expensive) electric car.  Can Musk pull it off again?

Last edited by Rich Melvin
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Originally Posted by Chris Lord:

Elon Musk (Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors) will unveil designs for a solar-powered inter-city passenger transport system by Aug. 12.

 

Musk claimed that his imagined train system would go "3 or 4 times faster than the [California] bullet train" or twice the speed of an aircraft, shuttling people from LA to San Francisco in under 30 minutes

 

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/...veal-details-of.html

 

Paypal is unbelievably successful.  SpaceX has done everything it promised up to this point.  Tesla makes a viable (albeit expensive) electric car.  Can Musk pull it off again?

PayPal, Tesla and Space X don't have to deal with environmental impact studies and NIMBY's.

 

Rusty

Originally Posted by baltimoretrainworks:

A supersonic train? Not gonna happen! Imagine the sonic boom at ground level !

 

Jerry

The only infrastructure I could see that could support such a train would be running a mag-lev inside a concrete and steel tube. The air displacement shock wave that normally creates a sonic boom wouldn't be above ground, but God knows how they'll manage the air flow in the tubes.

Originally Posted by AGHRMatt:
Originally Posted by baltimoretrainworks:

A supersonic train? Not gonna happen! Imagine the sonic boom at ground level !

 

Jerry

The only infrastructure I could see that could support such a train would be running a mag-lev inside a concrete and steel tube. The air displacement shock wave that normally creates a sonic boom wouldn't be above ground, but God knows how they'll manage the air flow in the tubes.

Ahh, But Science Fiction already answered the problem with the fix: The tube is held in near vacuum, the train airlocked in and out at the ends.

Speed is not limited by airflow that way.

Of course, the Sci-Fi propulsion method (Pre Mag-Lev) was a literal blast. Add some methane behind the train and ignite, Boom, lots of acceleration.  A bit rough on passengers tho.

Originally Posted by Kent Loudon:

Pods 2 meters in diameter?  Definitely NOT designed for claustrophobics!  I had an MRI a while ago and that was bad enough!

 

Let's skip this step and advance directly to molecular transport.  "Beam me to San Diego, Elon."

 Last time that I had an MRI. I shouted out 'Torpedo los!' when they closed the hatch. I then had to wait until the technicians had stopped laughing before they could start the scan. I was also told that I was a sick puppy. But I knew that already. 

Originally Posted by cbojanower:

Luckily for all you naysayers,there are dreamers and every so often successes

Remember at one time everyone thought the horse was the best way to haul things around, the railroads were a gimmick and if you traveled above 20 miles an hours the air would be drawn from your lungs

 

...and using iron plows would poison the earth! 

 


 

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