Elon has a huge Hyperloop rival

[botsapper]

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation has plans to start working on a high-speed flying planetrain that would reach speeds of 4,000 km or 2,500 miles per hour, three times the speed of sound! It will use magnetic levitation in a vacuum tube system. Obviously an offshoot of Elon Musk's Hyperloop, the ambitious Chinese system will have three different speeds and distance stages; planetrains that can run up to 620 mph among Chinese regional cities, 1,250 mph among large megalopolises and 2,500 mph travel between different countries along the Chinese global initiative, Silk Road Economic Belt '21st Maritime Silk Road' or BRI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H5CPxYG0yo

[Daschicken]

I hope they are more successful than the hyperloop, it seems making a giant vacuum chamber is not that easy.

[Xist]

In theory, you don't need the trains, but that is only suitable for bureaucrats!



[Does that image show up for anyone?]

[niky]

Good luck if they're relying on the silk road to get these rolling.

After what's happened with Sri Lanka, many neighbors are (rightfully) wary of Chinese loans and offers of assistance.

[freebeard]

At 2500mph the inside of the tube better be built to optical-level tolerances.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by freebeard

At 2500mph the inside of the tube better be built to optical-level tolerances.

It can't be and does not need to be.
The ground may not be 100% stable; then the tube will move. But even if it gets bored through solid rock then variances in tectonic stress and heat will cause slight deviations that would shake the capsule to bits at Mach 2.

All the tube needs is an automatically adjustable girder system to compensate for the deviations and some extra space to allow for those adjustments.

I think the hyperloop system is viable; not in the West or China, but on the moon, if we ever get a large human presence there.
Moon bases need to be built in tunnels: away from cosmic radiation, extremes in heat and cold and super abrasive moon dust.

A hyperloop at over mach 2 could even be used as a launch system on the moon, throwing materials from the moon into space at very low cost.
if we want to explore the wider solar system and beyond we should seriously consider a moon base with factories and hyperloop launcher as a stepping stone.

[freebeard]

All the tube needs is an automatically adjustable girder system to compensate for the deviations and some extra space to allow for those adjustments.

A rigid but flexible tube? 2500mph is 3666ft/sec. Changes in grade or curves would be problematic.

The Moon would be the place for a space elevator. No atmospheric drag, or terrorists.

The earliest mention I remember of underground tunnels had them on a catenary curve. Instead of mag-lev, you were to just drop them straight down the hole and let gravity do the work.

[Xist]

If you hollowed out the Moon and fired a proton torpedo into an exhaust port, if there is an equal and opposite shaft on the opposite side, and no obstructions, would the torpedo travel through the Moon, or be pulled back in at some point, again and again, until it loses inertia?

[redpoint5]

It should gain speed until passing the mid-point, and then begin slowing until reaching the other side, and then reverse direction over and over again until the minuscule particles slow the object over time.

Speaking of accelerating objects on the surface of the moon, at a certain speed the surface of the moon would be falling away from the accelerated object faster than the low gravity keep it anchored to the surface. It would be neat to accelerate an object and provide a means of keeping it tethered to the surface, and then release it like a slingshot, allowing it to break free of the moons gravity.

[RedDevil]

One could still travel faster than the 2.38 kilometer per second lunar escape velocity in a hyperloop over the moon's surface but the seats need to be upside down...

The moon is almost 4 times as small as the earth so the largest distance over the surface would be just over 5000 km or 3000 miles. With a lunar escape velocity++ hyperloop one could literally work on one end of the moon and live on the direct opposing point and still have a reasonable commute. Just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the workplace.