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Any hints about how a broken down hyperloop train would be evacuated? Or what happens if the tunnel suddenly pressured (e.g. aircraft/lorry hit a section dislod

Any hints about how a broken down hyperloop train would be evacuated? Or what happens if the tunnel suddenly pressured (e.g. aircraft/lorry hit a section dislodging it)? Also how resistant is the design to earthquakes given the high negative pressure (i.e. how will the flexible joints be built to both withstand the pressure and move enough during an earthquake without derailing the train)? How will maintenance be done on the system?

salmonet 11y ago
No idea, but I'm sure people had similar thoughts about airplanes when they were experimental. I, for one, am very happy to see bold experiments like this in transportation.
ajmurmann 11y ago
I don't have a reference at hand but recall vaguely that all these issues were addressed in Musk's original document.
consp 11y ago
The guys from the team from Delft told me there would be a shockwave which the pods can easily resist and after about 30 seconds the tube is pressurized and the passengers can escape. The idea is that there will be hatches every [n] meters to allow an exit from the tube if needed. The rest are all good questions
- ackfoo 11y ago
  Hatches with ladders down to the ground? Great way to increase cost and diminish reliability exponentially. Let's put a failure point every [n] meters. Notwithstanding, this is a distraction from the biggest problem, which is that a decompression of one vehicle will require recompression of the entire segment of the hyperloop, stopping all vehicles in the segment. At the ambient near-vacuum pressure inside the hyperloop, humans cannot survive for more than a few seconds even with supplemental pressurized oxygen masks. There is absolutely no way to deal with the decompression of a single vehicle other than (a) recompress the loop or (b) plan for the occupants to be dead by the next stop. The problem is not even decompression itself. Any failure of a sensor or failure of communication with the vehicle for more than about 1s must be interpreted as a decompression, with shutdown of the loop, because to do otherwise is to plan for the death of the occupants. Commercial travel at very low ambient pressures has significant caveats. A plan to deal with these is going to be central to wide acceptance of the system. This is the greatest design challenge of the hyperloop.
StavrosK 11y ago
> Any hints about how a broken down hyperloop train would be evacuated? Extremely rapidly.

salmonet 11y ago

No idea, but I'm sure people had similar thoughts about airplanes when they were experimental. I, for one, am very happy to see bold experiments like this in transportation.

ajmurmann 11y ago

I don't have a reference at hand but recall vaguely that all these issues were addressed in Musk's original document.

consp 11y ago

The guys from the team from Delft told me there would be a shockwave which the pods can easily resist and after about 30 seconds the tube is pressurized and the passengers can escape. The idea is that there will be hatches every [n] meters to allow an exit from the tube if needed. The rest are all good questions

ackfoo 11y ago
Hatches with ladders down to the ground? Great way to increase cost and diminish reliability exponentially. Let's put a failure point every [n] meters. Notwithstanding, this is a distraction from the biggest problem, which is that a decompression of one vehicle will require recompression of the entire segment of the hyperloop, stopping all vehicles in the segment. At the ambient near-vacuum pressure inside the hyperloop, humans cannot survive for more than a few seconds even with supplemental pressurized oxygen masks. There is absolutely no way to deal with the decompression of a single vehicle other than (a) recompress the loop or (b) plan for the occupants to be dead by the next stop. The problem is not even decompression itself. Any failure of a sensor or failure of communication with the vehicle for more than about 1s must be interpreted as a decompression, with shutdown of the loop, because to do otherwise is to plan for the death of the occupants. Commercial travel at very low ambient pressures has significant caveats. A plan to deal with these is going to be central to wide acceptance of the system. This is the greatest design challenge of the hyperloop.

StavrosK 11y ago

> Any hints about how a broken down hyperloop train would be evacuated? Extremely rapidly.