4 ms·

Spacex also has plans for hypersonic flight through space. A rocket goes up and then goes horizontal and then lands at destination. Price point is close to busi

Spacex also has plans for hypersonic flight through space. A rocket goes up and then goes horizontal and then lands at destination. Price point is close to business class on a 20 hour flight. How much do things change? Flights halfway around the world won't be exhausting anymore. And to be rational, there should ONLY be flights that go ONLY halfway around the world. Otherwise, it is more economically disruptive and less resource friendly. So that means, Beijing--New York, London--San Francisco, Dubai--Hawaii, South Africa --Tokyo, etc.

midasuni 4y ago
Flights aren’t exhausting now - indeed it’s 20 hours of calm Reading a book and sleeping, perhaps moreso in first than in business but business isn’t that bad. The time zone change is another thing. Compare with the g-forces of a suborbital flight. It remains to be seen how much time could actually be saved. When I fly from Heathrow I turn up an hour beforehand and get on a plane. An hour from arrival to blastoff seems optimistic. Weather rarely affects things either.
- wkat4242 4y ago
  That's very personal. I can't sleep on planes and I hate being stuck in a seat. First class is even not something I could consider. Nor really business in most cases.
dagw 4y ago
Flights halfway around the world won't be exhausting anymore. I find the main exhausting part about transcontinental travel is first of all the jet lag, and secondly all the other steps that don't involve sitting in the plane. This doesn't really solve either of those problems. The actual sitting on an airplane part I find pretty relaxing.
- coldpie 4y ago
  > The actual sitting on an airplane part I find pretty relaxing. Man I wish I felt that way. Every second I'm on a plane is torture to me. The tiny seat, that smell, the noise, the other people, my knees locked in position for hours and hours. I hate it so much.
  - afavour 4y ago
    All of your issues are solved by flying first class. I mean, first class travel is not within my means either but if we're talking about rockets flying half way around the world we're not talking economy seats, not for a long time. If the prices were similar I imagine a lot of people would take an extremely comfortable long flight over a short cramped, g-force intense rocket trip.
    - nashashmi 4y ago
      That is true for the most part but in order for the rocket to be a successful, business, you only need a few passengers per day. The time savings makes a difference for the high earners
      - afavour 4y ago
        > The time savings makes a difference for the high earners I’m not so convinced. These days we’ve got very usable internet connections on planes. Anyone can be very productive while in the air.
- whoisthemachine 4y ago
  The jet lag could be avoided by flying there for your meeting, and returning to your original time zone when it is over.
  - lazide 4y ago
    That’s one expensive meeting!
Yizahi 4y ago
His E2E Starhip idea is so completely unviable and unrealistic that is is hard to even pick which argument should be used first :) . Everything about this idea is so wrong. 1. Price. Not viable, even using fantasy calculation of 2mil/flight (I suspect it will be at least 5-10 times more). You get 20000$ per ticket assuming full utilisation of 100 passengers. That's first class ticket price, or a seat at the shared business jet. So only rich people can afford it, but it is maybe realistic. 2. Utilisation - you will not find 100 people who simultaneously want to travel from A to B in the same exact hour while planning this trip weeks/months in advance. Planning trips is a vacation mode, business trips happen sporadically and quickly. This automatically throws off item #1 because then your price will skyrocket due to fewer people travelling. 3. Safety for passengers - no comments. Obvious blocker even on its own. Also Gov authorities will demand passengers training etc. (billionaire would go to months long training to save few hours of flight? lolno) 3b. Evacuation requirement. There is no possibility for quick evacuation of the 100 humans in spacesuits on the launchpad, so Gov will ban this idea. 4. G forces. Old and frail billionaires won't be able to fly this due to health concerns. 5. Landing pads. They need to be dozens of kilometers of both start and destination. This will eliminate any fantasies about saving time. And they will introduce immense additional expenses (so no 2mil flights). 6. Countries paranoia. Ballistic missiles of foreign force regularly overflying their countries in their airspace? Won't happen. The Axis of Pissed Contrarian Kids will block their airspace on principle (China, Ruzzia, all middle east, half of the South America etc.). 7. Reliability and reusability is not yet proven at all. There are probably ten more issues with his plan if someone would sit and carefully analyze it and calculate costs. tl;dr Both hyperjets and passenger Starship is the same basic idea - futuristic travel via small but advanced "pods". Where "pods" is whatever futuristic looking vehicle of the day is used, with small capacity and unrealistic use case. Like hyperloop, autonomous cars, monorail cars, flying taxis, private rail vehicles etc. All complete bullshit.
- nashashmi 4y ago
  I will just comment on the cost part. 100 percent Reusable rockets + saving money on food for international flights + passengers in tight pods with no walking room + no astronaut gear + little to no staff + 10 flights per day. Even if you only take 10 passengers a flight, you have a cost a little bit more than business class. If you take the number of hours a person saves and multiply that by executive wages ($200k), the savings are a no Brainer. Of anything, there is upside in raising the price.

midasuni 4y ago

Flights aren’t exhausting now - indeed it’s 20 hours of calm Reading a book and sleeping, perhaps moreso in first than in business but business isn’t that bad. The time zone change is another thing. Compare with the g-forces of a suborbital flight. It remains to be seen how much time could actually be saved. When I fly from Heathrow I turn up an hour beforehand and get on a plane. An hour from arrival to blastoff seems optimistic. Weather rarely affects things either.

wkat4242 4y ago
That's very personal. I can't sleep on planes and I hate being stuck in a seat. First class is even not something I could consider. Nor really business in most cases.

dagw 4y ago

Flights halfway around the world won't be exhausting anymore. I find the main exhausting part about transcontinental travel is first of all the jet lag, and secondly all the other steps that don't involve sitting in the plane. This doesn't really solve either of those problems. The actual sitting on an airplane part I find pretty relaxing.

coldpie 4y ago
> The actual sitting on an airplane part I find pretty relaxing. Man I wish I felt that way. Every second I'm on a plane is torture to me. The tiny seat, that smell, the noise, the other people, my knees locked in position for hours and hours. I hate it so much.
- afavour 4y ago
  All of your issues are solved by flying first class. I mean, first class travel is not within my means either but if we're talking about rockets flying half way around the world we're not talking economy seats, not for a long time. If the prices were similar I imagine a lot of people would take an extremely comfortable long flight over a short cramped, g-force intense rocket trip.
  - nashashmi 4y ago
    That is true for the most part but in order for the rocket to be a successful, business, you only need a few passengers per day. The time savings makes a difference for the high earners
    - afavour 4y ago
      > The time savings makes a difference for the high earners I’m not so convinced. These days we’ve got very usable internet connections on planes. Anyone can be very productive while in the air.
whoisthemachine 4y ago
The jet lag could be avoided by flying there for your meeting, and returning to your original time zone when it is over.
- lazide 4y ago
  That’s one expensive meeting!

Yizahi 4y ago

His E2E Starhip idea is so completely unviable and unrealistic that is is hard to even pick which argument should be used first :) . Everything about this idea is so wrong. 1. Price. Not viable, even using fantasy calculation of 2mil/flight (I suspect it will be at least 5-10 times more). You get 20000$ per ticket assuming full utilisation of 100 passengers. That's first class ticket price, or a seat at the shared business jet. So only rich people can afford it, but it is maybe realistic. 2. Utilisation - you will not find 100 people who simultaneously want to travel from A to B in the same exact hour while planning this trip weeks/months in advance. Planning trips is a vacation mode, business trips happen sporadically and quickly. This automatically throws off item #1 because then your price will skyrocket due to fewer people travelling. 3. Safety for passengers - no comments. Obvious blocker even on its own. Also Gov authorities will demand passengers training etc. (billionaire would go to months long training to save few hours of flight? lolno) 3b. Evacuation requirement. There is no possibility for quick evacuation of the 100 humans in spacesuits on the launchpad, so Gov will ban this idea. 4. G forces. Old and frail billionaires won't be able to fly this due to health concerns. 5. Landing pads. They need to be dozens of kilometers of both start and destination. This will eliminate any fantasies about saving time. And they will introduce immense additional expenses (so no 2mil flights). 6. Countries paranoia. Ballistic missiles of foreign force regularly overflying their countries in their airspace? Won't happen. The Axis of Pissed Contrarian Kids will block their airspace on principle (China, Ruzzia, all middle east, half of the South America etc.). 7. Reliability and reusability is not yet proven at all. There are probably ten more issues with his plan if someone would sit and carefully analyze it and calculate costs. tl;dr Both hyperjets and passenger Starship is the same basic idea - futuristic travel via small but advanced "pods". Where "pods" is whatever futuristic looking vehicle of the day is used, with small capacity and unrealistic use case. Like hyperloop, autonomous cars, monorail cars, flying taxis, private rail vehicles etc. All complete bullshit.

nashashmi 4y ago
I will just comment on the cost part. 100 percent Reusable rockets + saving money on food for international flights + passengers in tight pods with no walking room + no astronaut gear + little to no staff + 10 flights per day. Even if you only take 10 passengers a flight, you have a cost a little bit more than business class. If you take the number of hours a person saves and multiply that by executive wages ($200k), the savings are a no Brainer. Of anything, there is upside in raising the price.