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How much power does it take to maintain a vacuum of 1/1000atm in a tube hundreds of miles long? It doesn't require any power, if there are no leaks. The power
by ansible 13y ago
How much power does it take to maintain a vacuum of 1/1000atm in a tube hundreds of miles long?
It doesn't require any power, if there are no leaks. The power required will be determined by the amount of leakage that is considered tolerable to the system.
- nawitus 13y agoThere'll certainly be leaks, it's another question how much.
- hristov 13y agoBut there will be leaks. He himself said there would be leaks and he would use commercial pumps to continuously keep the vacuum.
- HCIdivision17 13y agoRegular mechanical pumps can haul gas to pressures of a hPa. Any lower, and you're looking at something like turbomolecular pumps. (And efficiency may call for a second stage of specialized mechanical pumps.) But in my experience, small mechanical leaks are usually of the order of a hPa or so, meaning no high vacuum tech will be needed. Just a fleet of giant blowers and mechanical pumps. (I worked on a wide area sputtering machine for a few years with a few hundred HP of mechanical backing pumps for about a hundred foot long chamber with a 10 sq foot average cross section (order of magnitude error for anonymity ;)) The machine would haul down to 10 or 1 hPa with leaks you could _hear_. So yeah, it could work practically, especially if it's a welded system and not a giant mess of bolts and o-rings.