EEVblog 1588 - Virgin Hyperloop One Goes BUST

[EEVblog]

The Elon Musk hyped Hyperloop One has gone out of business. Who could have predicted it?

[RoGeorge]

Just so you know, the video appears as private.

Can't be watched here, and can't be watched in YT either without signing in in YT, which I don't lately.

[wraper]

The Elon Musk hyped Hyperloop One has gone out of business. Who could have predicted it?

When Musk hyped Hyperloop One? Musk published Hyperloop design idea, and later has build a test tube at SpaceX premises that was used for student competitions. That's about it. Hyperloop One has nothing to do with Musk and I couldn't find a single example of him endorsing it.

[EEVblog]

The Elon Musk hyped Hyperloop One has gone out of business. Who could have predicted it?

When Musk hyped Hyperloop One? Musk published Hyperloop design idea, and later has build a test tube at SpaceX premises that was used for student competitions. That's about it. Hyperloop One has nothing to do with Musk and I couldn't find a single example of him endorsing it.

I said exactly that in the video.
I mention Elon for the keyword SEO

[EEVblog]

Just so you know, the video appears as private.
Can't be watched here, and can't be watched in YT either without signing in in YT, which I don't lately.

Yes, I had to reupload. If you follow me on Twitter you'd know.

[AndyBeez]

After the failure of Virgin Orbit, the company seems to be on a downer.

Vacuuming passengers is not such a new idea...

Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway London 1864
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_pneumatic_railway

Beach Pneumatic Transit NYC 1869
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit

[.RC.]

Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway London 1864
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_pneumatic_railway

Interesting.   What say we put a fan at either end of the tunnel, one sucking and one blowing, AND, add solar panels onto the roof of the tunnel that will power the fans.

That has got to be worth $100 million in government funding surely?

[nonlinearschool]

 :popcorn:Yeah scam city, however, if just freight shots 100m 200m long. using whatever..say, mag-lev, and a sealed tunnel to prevent theft.There would be huge profits. The real difficulty around the world is finding a place to lay any length of rail today.  Too much land owned, too much NIMBY, too much incredible costs for eminent domain.

The US cannot even get high speed trains...not even over 100MPH simple because of the above reasons.  California might happen by, what?< 2050? 2150? LOL. New York to Washington DC, almost 100mph, standard trains. Pittsburgh to Phily is is? initially claimed to do Chicago to Phily... never happened.

In Africa? in a dictatorship?  Yes, China. It's simply building any railway of length.

Imagine a puff firing freight from SF-Bat Area to LA. with mag-lev support...whatever, remove drivers, engineer. move at as little 100mph. reduce cost from 18 wheeler diesel trucks or diesel electric trains.  Hugs profit. and here's the best part HD steel tubes, to prevent hi jacking!! LOL

Lived in S Colo. Know Pueblo..considered the US capital of steel making. Property cheap and empty.  Owned some land there once. held for twenty years. zero increase until early 2000's when plans to build a couple of super dams to feed all of SE Colorado. Sold, Native American's  blocked any dam making, and real estate dropped to 1980 value.

Anyone think we can get a simple HS train built? in USA, in Europe outside of France? UK continent, or Ireland? Korea?  Japan is building another line.  Maybe an Aussie single shot from eastern seaboard to Perth...Sadly, that would really screw any who remain in between.

[HighVoltage]

In Germany we have a 24 meter long test track.

Europe’s first certified full-scale Hyperloop test track is now ready for test operations, marking a significant milestone in sustainable and ultra-fast transportation. The 24-metre-long track was developed by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Hyperloop research group. The first successful test run with a passenger pod in vacuum conditions took place on the 10th of July 2023.

https://archinect.com/news/article/150359211/german-research-group-completes-europe-s-first-hyperloop-test-track

[EEVblog]

In Germany we have a 24 meter long test track.

Europe’s first certified full-scale Hyperloop test track is now ready for test operations, marking a significant milestone in sustainable and ultra-fast transportation. The 24-metre-long track was developed by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Hyperloop research group. The first successful test run with a passenger pod in vacuum conditions took place on the 10th of July 2023.

https://archinect.com/news/article/150359211/german-research-group-completes-europe-s-first-hyperloop-test-track

I missed that one!

[SiliconWizard]

Who thinks something actual useful could have been done with all this cash instead?

[wilfred]

Just so you know, the video appears as private.
Can't be watched here, and can't be watched in YT either without signing in in YT, which I don't lately.

Yes, I had to reupload. If you follow me on Twitter you'd know.

Not everyone uses Twitter and if you don't sign on you don't seem to get the latest. From what I hear the number of people who tweet on twitter is declining. Not sure what one does  on X, Xcrete maybe.

[wilfred]

Who thinks something actual useful could have been done with all this cash instead?

Circulating the cash in the economy is somewhat useful. It's when the music stops the problems start.

[djsb]

There is an argument that there is value in the development work carried out in trying to solve this particular problem. Work involving students in universities get the chance to work on systems design and the hardware and software involved. The journey may be better than the destination.

[RoGeorge]

Yes, but the same benefits of gaining experience + serendipitous discoveries will also happen during a journey to a fruitful destination.

[EEVblog]

Part 2: TUM Hyperloop

[EEVblog]

Just so you know, the video appears as private.
Can't be watched here, and can't be watched in YT either without signing in in YT, which I don't lately.

Yes, I had to reupload. If you follow me on Twitter you'd know.

Not everyone uses Twitter and if you don't sign on you don't seem to get the latest. From what I hear the number of people who tweet on twitter is declining. Not sure what one does  on X, Xcrete maybe.

Then too bad, you don't get to find out updates like that.
Where else am I supposed to put it? On the forum? Where? Youtube Community Tab where everyone would complain they get notified of every post?
X/Twitter is the social media platform of choice, everything else sucks. If you want to follow me, I post there multiple times daily. If not that's fine, but don't complain that you miss stuff.
I also post my videos natively on there as well, so you don't have to leave the platform to watch my content, comment, and follow my every update and thought.

[EEVblog]

There is an argument that there is value in the development work carried out in trying to solve this particular problem. Work involving students in universities get the chance to work on systems design and the hardware and software involved. The journey may be better than the destination.

See my Part 2 TUM Hyperloop video for an example of this. Over 80 university people working on this project after a grant from the Bavarian state government.
But make no mistake, the grant wasn't so that engineering students could get to work on a "real word" design, they had more people employed in the strategy and marketing department than on the project and safety teams.
https://tumhyperloop.com/team/

Also, I found this document on an anlysis of the commercial prospects.
https://wissenschaftsrat.ch/images/BAK_2020_hyperloop.pdf

[golden_labels]

Nevomo is a company from Poland, which “introduces hyperloop in steps”: first by retrofitting a maglev rail on top of existing traditional railway, then surrounding that with tubes, then making it the “true hyperloop”. Obviously you can’t charge anybody with fraud, if they only took money for the first two parts. I’m quite sure they will not fail in putting tubes around tracks.

Meanwhile Poland already has 290 km/h trains, both trains and rails certified for 250 km/h, deployed and getting you in 2.5 hours across half of the country. Apparently somebody has to tell these traditional rail engineers, that air drag is a huge problem.

[EEVblog]

Meanwhile Poland already has 290 km/h trains, both trains and rails certified for 250 km/h, deployed and getting you in 2.5 hours across half of the country. Apparently somebody has to tell these traditional rail engineers, that air drag is a huge problem.

It's like planes, you eventually reach a design optimum in terms of speed, complexity, safety, cost etc.
It's why Hyperloop will never be a thing, and Starship point to point will never be a thing.

[wraper]

Meanwhile Poland already has 290 km/h trains, both trains and rails certified for 250 km/h, deployed and getting you in 2.5 hours across half of the country. Apparently somebody has to tell these traditional rail engineers, that air drag is a huge problem.

250km/h is not that fast actually. Slower than Shinkansen and much slower than Maglev in China. Hyperloop as of "Hyperloop Alpha" paper from Elon targeted 1220 kph. You say half of Poland in 2.5 hours, but it's a relatively small distance.

Nevomo is a company from Poland, which “introduces hyperloop in steps”: first by retrofitting a maglev rail on top of existing traditional railway, then surrounding that with tubes, then making it the “true hyperloop”. Obviously you can’t charge anybody with fraud, if they only took money for the first two parts. I’m quite sure they will not fail in putting tubes around tracks.

Sounds absolutely ridiculous.

[nctnico]

Meanwhile Poland already has 290 km/h trains, both trains and rails certified for 250 km/h, deployed and getting you in 2.5 hours across half of the country. Apparently somebody has to tell these traditional rail engineers, that air drag is a huge problem.

250km/h is not that fast actually. Slower than Shinkansen and much slower than Maglev in China. Hyperloop as of "Hyperloop Alpha" paper from Elon targeted 1220 kph. You say half of Poland in 2.5 hours, but it's a relatively small distance.

Meanwhile the Dutch are still chugging along...
IMHO you shouldn't see hyperloop as an alternative for trains as these are typically for short distances but for an alternative of airplanes. A crapload of stuff is being transported by airplanes which are relatively infrequent, prone to weather conditions and not very fuel efficient. Now ofcourse the question is whether transporting goods through what basically is a pipeline, is cheaper compared to an airplane but then again, oil and gas pipelines spanning thousends of kilometers do exist and are commercially viable.

[Bud]

Part 2: TUM Hyperloop

Two dudes were in the pod but three dudes came out of the tube. Where was the third dude hiding in the tube at 10 mBar pressure? 

[HighVoltage]

10 mbar is a pretty good vacuum for such a large tube!

Everyone that has worked with vacuum knows, what a tremendous amount of pumps is needed to empty only 1 m^3 to 10 mbar.
It would have taken a very long time to bring this 24m long tube down to 10 mbar vacuum.
Or they have vacuum pumps that I am not aware of.

[RoGeorge]

My first question would be how do they cool the train without air?