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It's also scary that the passengers would suffocate if the life support system failed.
by axus 13y ago
It's also scary that the passengers would suffocate if the life support system failed.
- stcredzero 13y agoNo different than planes.
- abruzzi 13y agoExcept that planes have (supposedly) trained staff that can go around and make sure everyone is getting oxygen. These pods are automated and would most likely have no staff on board.
- cenhyperion 13y agoPutting on an oxygen mask is not a difficult operation.
- numbsafari 13y agoUnless you are otherwise incapacitated due to whatever is causing the emergency in the first place.
- ajuc 13y agoYou can always push "emergency break, quickly depresurize tube and open doors" button. No such luck in plane, and planes are still safer than cars.
- CamperBob2 13y agoNot that different from a commercial aircraft in that regard. Loss of pressurization is a serious emergency in both cases.
- clarkmoody 13y agoThe paper discusses supplemental oxygen and emergency tube re-pressurization in the case of sudden evacuation of the atmosphere of a capsule. It seems that detecting failures of this nature quickly would be the important thing. The fix looks to be relatively easy, though you would cause a major disruption to the whole Loop.
- nsxwolf 13y agoBYOO (Bring Your Own Oxygen)
- julian37 13y agoIsn't that the case with planes also? As far as I know, at 35,000 feet altitude you'd die, too, if cabin pressure drops and the plane's life support system fails. And I don't recall ever hearing of an air plane accident that involved suffocation.
- bbatsell 13y agoThere have been a few, but they're quite rare. Two of the more prominent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_cras...
- nemo1618 13y agoAmazing that there are so many safeguards in place to prevent what happened to HCY 522, and yet the crew managed to miss/ignore them all. I'm sure there have been many thousands of instances where a safeguard prevented such an incident, but in this case I suppose the fates aligned.
- theycallmemorty 13y agoThat Helios article is just terrifying
- omegant 13y agoLook at the Armstrong limit (at 62,000´), a mayor problem to overcome if the tube is going to be at the equivalent pressure of 150,000´ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Limit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Limit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_useful_consciousness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_useful_consciousness Also look at the TUC (time of useful consciousness) that it´s below 5 secs when flying that high. That means that you have less than 5 secs to put your oxigen mask on before you lose conciousness, or behave with out knowing what is happening. Also due to the extreme low pressure, you´ll have a horrible a horrible stomach ache due to the expansion of the gases inside you. Your blood (or at least the corporal fluids exposed directly to the low pressure) will start boiling. Not funny. Maybe one solution could be wearing some kind of pressure suit for this trips. But that is not going to be very convinient..
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- cenhyperion 13y agoYou're pretty much done if the life support systems on a plane fail and you're pretty much done if your car has a massive failure while you're doing 70MPH. I can't imagine it being statistically more dangerous than driving.
- lmm 13y agoDriving seems to get a special exemption in the public consciousness. Trains and planes are already much, much safer than driving, but they're still required to add additional redundant safety features, and there's still outcry when one crashes.
- amha 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash