This is why Elon is the Tesla of our generation...

[Noxvayl]

https://youtu.be/nULPR9MjKNw

Now for full disclosure I am highly bias...

I'm South African so share a common heritage to Elon.

I do not care about ROI in any investing I do because I don't want any money back, I just want to help move things in the right direction.

Also, the fact that he has started and successfully run multiple businesses and thought, you know what lets go to space, is just rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishing awesome. Real life Tony Stark, always good to have hero's that are still alive. I needed to replace Nelson Mandela with someone after all

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sure he is a dreamer and that is a good thing which seems to be lost nowadays. The problem is one person is not enough(sadly).

Regarding the space part,TBF and no disrespect to Elon Musk,I am more interested in what Alan Bond is doing with Reaction Engines TBF. I am sure making cheaper rockets is great,but they are still multistage rockets with all the problems associated with them but modernised with modern technology and the last big risk with rocket engine design which actually entered production were the Soviet rocket engines in the 1960s and 1970s. By now I honestly thought we would have true SSTO,and what Reaction Engines is doing is probably closer to that reality - its a shame they don't have the billions of dollars of funding to push it forward like so many things done here. The same with our own indigenous launch system in the Black Arrow,which we abandoned and which benefited other countries instead,which used environmentally friendly fuels.

Honestly,we are even still using the same type of rocket nozzles used decades ago - look at things like linear aerospikes,etc.

I mean we still don't even have supersonic airliners or business jets. I mean we still need to spend like 10+ hours to fly to other parts of the world.

Its been over 30 years since the NASP was proposed,and now we are back to capsules,which are essentially modernised versions of what the Russians have been doing for nearly 40 years,and using technology shared with airliners.

The same goes with propulsion in space - we are still using chemical rockets,and yet looking at other forms of propulsion are still all stuck in a lab. Even some of the modern "spaceplanes" being proposed look like the old Mig105 from 1976.

The last time I got excited about space was the robotic missions to Mars and the ISS I suppose is an achievement in its own right(but again the Russians pioneered that decades ago),but even though people are proposing we send people to Mars,it will be using reheated 1960s technology. Its not going to be viable for anything long-term.

In the end I can't excited about space technology anymore - since its essentially like trying to get excited about the latest Fiesta. I am sure its a much better car than the first one,but it is not doing anything revolutionary,and if humanity really wants to explore and colonise the solar system,I think we need to do more.

I mean watching 2001:A Space Odyssey,it might as well been set in 2101.

[Biscuit]

Dont forget the disaster waiting to happen that is hyperloop

[Noxvayl]

Dont forget the disaster waiting to happen that is hyperloop

We've had magnetic levitation for decades... yet Japan and China are the only users of the technology.

Cities are already funding the project to link themselves. Failure is not something to be vilified, for without it we would never progress. Disaster? far fetched to say the least.

[Biscuit]

We've had magnetic levitation for decades... yet Japan and China are the only users of the technology.

Cities are already funding the project to link themselves. Failure is not something to be vilified, for without it we would never progress. Disaster? far fetched to say the least.

The maglev part is neither ambitious nor innovative, its the vaccuum part which is.... well...

[Noxvayl]

The maglev part is neither ambitious nor innovative, its the vaccuum part which is.... well...

So what is space then? It isn't like we are unfamiliar with vacuums.

Heck we make submarines which are much more difficult to secure against the pressures of water... I don't understand the concern.

[Biscuit]

100m sure, 500m, also I can get behind that, even perhaps 1 mile, but we're talking about the possibility of hundreds of miles of (near complete)vacuum tube with vehicles that are expected to eventually travel near to the speed of sound (if i'm not mistaken?).

Cool idea for sci-fi, not going to happen in our lifetimes.

[kalniel]

Pah, give me $16bn and I'd amaze the world!

[Noxvayl]

I'll take that bet Biscuit... 1 Bitcoin

[Ttaskmaster]

Whilst I can appreciate this.... err.... what's a polite phrase that won't get me banned.... 'stroking the ego' of Elon Musk, for all the "genius" he is and the greatest thing to walk the Earth since Jesus Christ Superstar....
But if it gets in the way of others' profit, it will not happen, no matter who you are.

Tesla himself was also quite the nutjob in many ways, who racked up huge debts, died in relative obscurity and had a questionable relationship with a pigeon.

I'll take that bet Biscuit... 1 Bitcoin

Bet him a Krugerrand... It's more stable!!

[peterb]

So what is space then? It isn't like we are unfamiliar with vacuums.

Heck we make submarines which are much more difficult to secure against the pressures of water... I don't understand the concern.

The submarine analogy is slightly different, as it is a relatively small volume resisting external pressure and is completely self contained. The hull penetrations are small and there are very few of them.

The maglev tunnels, if they are operating in a vacuum is a much greater volume with multiple penetrations to get services in to it so the chances of leaks are much higher - as it is, the air pumps would need to run continuously. The vehicle will need to withstand internal pressure - not impossible, pressure vessels are well understood, but that adds to the mass of the vehicle. There is also the question of how you board the vehicle, which needs to be easy, and completed at atmospheric pressure, the door seals need to be perfect every time, and the vehicle needs to enter and exit the tunnel systems through an airlock, again not impossible, but adds to the complexity. (Does reduce the fire risk though )

Finally, the tunnel systems will need maintaining. Tat could be by RPV or maintenance vehicle. Personnel entering the tunnels would need to wear pressure suits, or the tunnels would need to be re-pressurised. None of it is impossible, but the technical challenges are formidable. Maglev in tunnels operating at atmospheric pressures are much simpler and there may be other ways of limiting the effects of pressure waves by installing bypass vents.

[Noxvayl]

We are assuming the hyperloop is going to debut with human transportation... which I think is wrong. I expect them to make these cargo pods first, to sort out teething issues, after which human pods will be included.

Of course news coverage and such won't be the same if we assumed that, so we get the hyperbole as usual. I also suspect the companies competing to bring this technology to market would prefer people to think that as well, who knows they may actually want to go with humans first but I think that is daft.

[TheAnimus]

Cargo pods that aren't the same as the standardised container size? Good luck with that, I doubt the costs of re-packing these pods would be worth the saving in time for shipping compared to putting them on traditional slow rail infrastructure that already exists.

The problem is whilst Musk has done some amazing things, he isn't exactly a saint either.

[DanceswithUnix]

We've had magnetic levitation for decades... yet Japan and China are the only users of the technology.

The original design used air bearings, a big fan on the front of the car blowing air underneath so it slid like the puck in an air hockey game was I think how it was described. When did it all go vacuum and maglev?

I can see the vacuum part not being maintainable, and the cars being run at reduced speed in air as it is cheaper. Seems better to just build air into the design from day 1.

OFC I can see Musk wanting a partial vacuum built into the design, as part of his obsession with Mars where a standard InterCity wouldn't fare so well, so a pressurised car would be handy. Is Hyperloop specced to run at Mars atmospheric pressure by any chance?


I see Mr Musk is in the news again, this time for his love life. I look forward to hearing him release a cover of "I Knew You Were Trouble", self published and using some new custom audio format of course

[Noxvayl]

Cargo pods that aren't the same as the standardised container size? Good luck with that, I doubt the costs of re-packing these pods would be worth the saving in time for shipping compared to putting them on traditional slow rail infrastructure that already exists.

The problem is whilst Musk has done some amazing things, he isn't exactly a saint either.

There is no such thing as a saint, unless you are ignorant of human fallibility. A topic for another discussion is idolisation of people, most notably in recent years are the memes going around with Edison and Tesla, both great men but one vilified and the other honoured.

[Ttaskmaster]

There is no such thing as a saint, unless you are ignorant of human fallibility.

There's being fallible, such as enjoing an ill-advised cocktail of pharmaceuticals and alcohol... and then there's being silly enough to tweet about it to everyone.