I'm guessing that they're looking at very long distance travel to make this worthwhile and it certainly sounds exciting - if not a little daunting.
I'm curious to know how you catapult human beings to 6500 kph without certain pressures on the anatomy making you very uncomfortable (or maybe even dead?)
How do you slow these things down at the other end without serious damage to internal organs?
What's the 'jet lag' like when you arrive? At least on a long haul flight you are adjusting to new time zones as you travel more sedately but at this kind of speed your internal body clock is going to be way out of kilter with the local time on arrival.
If these tubes are travelling at such speeds what are the g-forces like on acceleration, deceleration and even the shallowest of curves?
Is in-flight catering possible? Will my gin and tonic stay in the glass and will I end up wearing my in-flight meal?
I'm asking a bunch of questions that already skip over the logistical challenges of building these things. Unless you want to fire a bunch of these 6 person tubes all to the same final destination in a serial queue, you will need multiple parallel channels. These tube tunnels are going to need to go through mountains, across oceans, under cities and no doubt through elevated sections, too. Given the trans-continental scale of such a transport system, where is the funding and the state buy-in to approve such a project going to come from?
Maybe I sound like a critic but I'm not. This is hugely exciting but I'd just like to know whether my initial concerns stem from a lack of understanding on my part or some very real technical challenges.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this concept.
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