Hi Folks,
OK lets sum up the FACTS here
1. It is physically possible to accelerate a vehicle to around 14,000 MPH or 6,173 M/s within 10.5 minutes at 9.8 m/s/s (1G)
2. To reach this speed you'd definitely need the vehicle to be in an evacuated tube, this would remove all problems with aerodynamic heating etc.
3. The tunnel would be less susceptible to earth movements etc being deep underground. (I still find it hard to believe that a major shift between two
tectonic plates would not damage the tunnel.)
4. Nuclear TBM's could be used (if they exist) to bore the tunnel and use the molten material removed at the cutting face to create the tunnel walls.
(I find it hard to believe that all of the waste would be able to be used to line the walls, surely some waste would have to be removed from the
tunnel as at deep depths the material would be of extremely high density already, therefore turning it to glass may not reduce it's volume much at
all?)
5. We are assuming that the need to move people across the continent in 21 minutes justifies the additional cost (of what would probably be the
largest engineering achievement ever undertaken) when compared to them flying.
In my humble opinion I don't think this thing exists. I just can't see the government ever justifying the cost. If, in the extremely rare
circumstance that you do need to get someone to the other coast extremely quickly it would be much cheaper to stick them in an SR-71.
Why is this needed?
If it was seriously economically viable a commercial organisation would have done it or would be doing it.
To put this into perspective lets look at the channel tunnel, linking England and France.
1. It cost $15 Billion to build
2. It had 13,000 people working on the project
3. It took 7 years to dig!
4. The American Society of Civil Engineers has declared the tunnel to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
All this for a normal tunnel, 31 miles long and only 150 feet deep. No vacuum system and no liquid helium cooled maglev propulsion, no top secret
designers, contractors, workers, engineers, operators etc.
Sorry, the maths adds up, the science adds up, but the justification just doesn't.
Got to go now, I've got a video conference to attend with a company in New York, I'll be there in a few milliseconds. :-)
Cheers
Robbie


he sure made one helluva blender

) on the final point again, justification. 