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will hyperloop be the only martian transportation one day? imagine there being a grid of hyperloop to take all over the planet. it's also free of those pesky se
by jlebrech 10y ago
will hyperloop be the only martian transportation one day? imagine there being a grid of hyperloop to take all over the planet. it's also free of those pesky seas.
- nicktelford 10y agoSure would be a lot easier/cheaper to maintain a near-vacuum when that is exactly what the atmosphere is!
- m0skit0 10y agoMars atmosphere is far from being near-vacuum. Also if you have to extract air, the difference between how much air you have to extract is pretty much irrelevant.
- lisper 10y agoHyperloop is much more feasible on Mars than on earth because you don't need to maintain a vacuum -- you've already got one. You don't even need a tube, just a U-shaped track.
- ceejayoz 10y agoLet's hope we leave space in future Martian cities for public transportation infrastructure.
- kctess5 10y agoI'm not sure that the ability to make a vacuum is our primary bottleneck to making a Hyperloop on Mars.
- UnoriginalGuy 10y ago> You don't even need a tube, just a U-shaped track. Thus making it a monorail, rather than a Hyperloop.
- lisper 10y agoWell, you'd still be "flying" on a thin cushion of Martian atmosphere rather than riding directly on a rail. That makes a big difference.
- tonmoy 10y agoMars isn't really a vaccum, but yes, maintaining a vaccum at Mars would definitely be easier than on earth
- m0skit0 10y agoNot really, almost the same effort.
- m0skit0 10y agoWhat benefits does a U-shaped track have over traditionnal rails?
- lisper 10y agoThe reason the hyperloop is attractive is that it's effectively "flying" at low pressure, which is equivalent to flying at high altitude, which lets it operate effectively like a jet airplane. On Mars you can do the same thing in a U-shaped track because of the thin atmosphere. You would be "flying" on a very thin cushion of atmosphere between the vehicle and the track. That has much less friction than a rail, and so you can go much faster.
- Pxtl 10y agoMusk's true hyperloop design isn't a train like the Hyperloop One company is proposing, but a sort of low-pressure ramjet hovercraft in a hose. On Mars, you don't need the top half of the hose because it's already low-pressure, so the ramjet hovercraft could run in an open-air trough.
- m0skit0 10y agoI think a simple train would be much cheaper and effective for Mars.
- JBReefer 10y agoYes, but those aren't disruptive. Honestly though, this whole idea smells like technofuturism to me. High-speed trains are hard, and this is being sold as being easy and sexy and futuristic. However, if you do the math out, the capacity isn't nearly as good as modern trains - which is literally the entire point of a train. That means Hyperloops are sort of like making a really cheap airplane that doesn't fly. The whole world is not the web, and there are legitimately difficult problems out there, particularly in transportation. The hype around the idea is absurd, and it sounds like at least 1 of the companies that took money to work on it was a scam.