If you believe Boom, let me know if you'd be interested in a bet. I'll take the "not gonna happen" side of that for any amount.
Neywiny 2 days ago [-]
I very much do not believe them, but I don't have much to base that on other than that now there's a company doing a similar thing and projecting much longer timelines. So sadly I'd be joining you
Danox 2 days ago [-]
Great sounds like something that should be built. Sounds like a job for a country Japan, South Korea, or China that's willing to execute a project over the long-term.
ungreased0675 2 days ago [-]
Casually mentioning space travel along with passenger service makes me think this isn’t a serious project.
Building supersonic passenger planes was never a technical problem (see Concorde), the problem is: they are too expensive to operate to be profitable. I bet this thing will never see any commercial use.
credit_guy 2 days ago [-]
Being "too expensive to operate to be profitable" is a technical problem.
HDBaseT 2 days ago [-]
Yep, TV's were said to be too expensive to produce to have one in every home.
Now every home has multiple TVs, with decent TVs being available for like $200
AngryData 2 days ago [-]
It is a technical problem bit still with very hard limits as to how much energy it will cost minimum to accomplish. You still gotta push through the air at higher speeds which takes a lot of energy/fuel. Best case is they go high enough to avoid a lot of the air, but you still have to get yourself up to that altitude through the air to start with.
Detrytus 2 days ago [-]
Airplane cost to operate is fuel consumption, and, by the laws of physic, aerodynamic resistance scales as a square of speed, so you can’t really work around it unless you invent some new laws of physics.
maattdd 2 days ago [-]
Your conclusion is really a false dichotomy.
The square of something very very small (close to zero) is negligeable : thus subortibal hop (Concorde was flying at 18km altitute for example).
laughing_man 2 days ago [-]
That's why these schemes typically envision a suborbital hop, with no air resistance for most of the trip.
LargoLasskhyfv 2 days ago [-]
...at an altitude of 25 kilometers, where atmospheric pressure is one-hundredth that at sea level.
xdertz 2 days ago [-]
One of Concordes problems was also that it was not that much faster for how uncomfortable it was. For London -> NY, You were looking at 7 hours in a luxurious business class vs 3.5 hours in a crammed noisy shaking metal tube for twice the price.
steve1977 2 days ago [-]
Now the question is whether there will be a significant number of people willing to travel to the US in 20 years.
martheen 2 days ago [-]
Poverty tourism is a thing. Can even pack a trip to scare students on what happen if they don't study
euroderf 2 days ago [-]
Based on "Scared Straight" but it's not the county jail, it's a decrepit ex-superpower.
Remember Space Odyssey 2001? Got something for you:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Pan+American+Space+Odyssey+2001&ia...
Now every home has multiple TVs, with decent TVs being available for like $200