More thoughts on the Hyperloop

Dear Hyperpassengers,



Static Electricity Demonstration in a Tube

Enjoyed reading the Hyperloop Alpha document on the slow old train yesterday. I had a few extra thoughts about some features not yet documented.

Static Electricity
The tube pressure is like stratospherically low.  About 1/1000th outside air pressure.  Such a low pressure would result in a extremely hyper dry air inside the tubes, since it is also significantly lower than the vapour pressure of water at that same temperature.  The pods in the hyperloop will carry us forward at sub-sonic .98 Mach speeds in a near vacuum. The electrodynamics and impact of the ultra-dry air inside the tube are not represented in the Alpha document so far. Look forward to gold plated pods which would conduct well enough to reduce the static effects transferred to the inside of the pods.  Love those electric fields in the lab, but you would not want the trip to be too hair raising.

The Sydney Canberra Aeolian Hyper Boomer Loop - Perfect Timing

Dear Bloggers,

Rail and Telegraph : The Overland Telegraph Australia originally joined 1872

I'm excited by news of Elon Musk's Hyperloop, the 'Air' tube building on the inspiration of the Medhurst Aeolian Engine from early 1800s. Political and Economic roadblocks [can you have a roadblock for a Hyperloop ?] could easily be circumvented if Elon brought the idea through to Australia. What better place to try an Aeolian solution than a high speed link between Sydney and Canberra ?

Perhaps you've been reading the naysayer's commentary, or otherwise following it on twitter. My suggestion is to follow @mollywood 's great CNET article on that topic. There is a right time for an idea as well, the drive technology has to be right, the need, the public readiness for change and the materials technology has to be economic.  When all these factors line up, then you can see the right things happening.  I'll admit Right of Way can be costly, but this should not be a problem in Australia between Sydney and Canberra at least.