Elon Musk's Hyperloop Alpha Design

[Dr. Righteous]

Got some bad news for you folks.
A project like this will NEVER happen even if Mr Billionaire wants to fund the entire thing himself.
And it is all for the same reason the infrastructure in the entire country is rotting and falling apart and not being replaced, upgraded or rebuilt. This main issue is CORRUPT local, county, city, federal GOVERNMENT.
Unless you line the pockets of the right people you will find yourself facing a law suit over something absolutely stupid like said construction will displace a rare species of snail.

 

[Parja]

I have a few questions on that too. The cars wouldn't look anything like the artist depiction. They would be almost hollow tubes themselves with an intake nozzle covering all of the front end and a fan right there. Not even sure if the air would be that well behaved since it would be a shockfront. You have air piling up in the front faster than the speed of sound and you're trying to vacuum pump it behind you. I'm not sure you can vacuum pump air faster than the speed of sound.

Speeds are subsonic. And as long as the fan is able to maintain a high enough flow, there is no shock front.

 

[Outamyhead]

I wonder what will power this thing, I mean besides the compressor vacuum system, I mean what will be supplying power to this project?

 

[Tawnos]

I wonder what will power this thing, I mean besides the compressor vacuum system, I mean what will be supplying power to this project?

The documents talk about putting solar panels along the entire top of the tube.