Real-life Futurama tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours

IO9 ^ | Apr 18, 2012 | Robert T. Gonzalez

[DogByte6RER]

Real-life Futurama tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours

The Simpsons have the monorail. Futurama has the Tube Transport System. The difference is that tube-transport is a fantasy — at least for now.

The folks at ET3 want to make what they call "Evacuated Tube Transport" a reality. Their proposed maglev system would be capable of propelling six-person-capacity cylinders to speeds of over 4000 miles per hour, making it possible for people to travel from New York to L.A. in just 45 minutes, or from New York to Beijing in two hours. What's more, ET3 claims the infrastructure could be built at one-tenth the cost of a high speed rail and would operate fifty times more efficiently than electric cars or trains.

These all sound like very, very bold claims to us — still, it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of a vacuum-sealed, maglev-powered, 4000-mile-per-hour transportation system (though the idea of a collision at those speeds, or the implications of a capsule-leak, are enough to make even the most enthusiastic transpo-futurist a little queasy).

[blueunicorn6]

“Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well, by 76 we’ll be AOK.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free.”

Donald Fagen

[Jmouse007]

Outstanding song and album. Great pick for this thread.

[Dead Corpse]

A libertarian Author thought this up a long time ago...

Originally penned in 1980, it’s on it’s 3rd incarnation now.

http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=164

Bighead Press has the whole graphic novel up if anyone is interested in reading the whole thing.

[Magic Fingers]

“Outstanding song and album. Great pick for this thread.”

Ditto! Always liked Fagen, with or without Becker.

[marlon]

Not that much different than going 500 miles an hour when something goes wrong

[NonValueAdded]

Real-life Futurama tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours

Of course, they haven't worked out the landing yet but experts feel the growing pool of bloody protoplasm at the end of the tube will soon be sufficient enough to buffer the deceleration forces upon landing.

[TexasRepublic]

“Is that a bad pun?”

Busted

[IYAS9YAS]

I wanna be going 4-freakin’-thousand miles an hour, when something goes wrong!

Well, at least the end would be quick. Messy, but quick.

[martin_fierro]

[Gay State Conservative]

Geeze...in my most recent trip on the NYC subway they couldn't even catapult me from W 34th St to Columbus Circle in 2 hours.

[Gay State Conservative]

How do you build a tube across the Pacific?

No need to...you just head east.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Yeah, I don’t want to go to Beijing or New York. I’d rather go to Tahiti.

[Gay State Conservative]

Yeah, I don’t want to go to Beijing or New York. I’d rather go to Tahiti.

NYC's not bad,when it's not raining...or snowing...or 15 degrees...or 95...or dark.

[ShadowAce]

It’s no different, effectively, than going 500-600mph 6 miles up in the air.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I’ll never forget the smell of the lower east side.

[JRios1968]

[dangus]

Well, not exactly. Since New York is in the Northern Hemisphere, you’d end up in the Southern Hemisphere. The more tangential the trip (and US to China is very tangential), the less beneficial gravity is.

[Billthedrill]

LA sucks. NY blows. Tell me something I didn’t know.

[hattend]

Imagine the tube burn you would get if you hit the side of the tube at 4000 miles per hour.

Plus all the blood, guts and vomit that would be lining that thing, the smell would be intolerable.

[SoothingDave]

A vacuum tube going to Philly wouldn’t take any energy at all.

Cause Philly sucks!

#Pensin7