Elon Musk is building on new, rocket like transportation technology to travel to any part of the planet in half hour. Also should cost same as aircrafts today.

This is man modern day "Thinker"

According to Torvalds "Talk is cheap. Show me the code.":

Talk is cheap. Show me a working vehicle.

@ddephor like Tesla ?

I didn't know a Tesla can transport you to any part of the planet in half an hour.

But let's be scientific:

Earth circumference is ~40000km, half of it ~20000km. Traveling this distance in half an hour means travelling at an average speed of 40000km/h.

Assuming acceleration of 1g (which would we uncomfortable enough for many people), it would take 18 minutes to even reach 40000km/h and another 18 minutes to stop, and then you haven't even roughly reached an average of 40000km/h.

Even with 2g you could in fact reach the 40000km/h and stop within 30 minutes, but would only travel about 12 minutes with maximum speed. If I calculated correctly including accelaration, max. speed and deceleration period, you would travel about 14000km in this 30 min.

With just a rough estimate it would need more than 20g to keep the 30 minutes.

Now show me the vehicle.

Well I mis read the post, which says "most places". But coming to facts, a rocket must attain 11.2 km/sec speed, in order to to leave earth's gravitational field. Which is also equal to 11.2*3600 kmph. So rockets already fly at such speed
Morever, you don't have to circle the whole planet to travel to anywhere. The maximum distance that you need to travel, is half the circumference of this planet

Anywhere under 60min*.

@jalebiBhai With 60 minutes technically it may be possible, yes, but it's useless and a heavy waste of ressources.
A rocket will never be a regular transportation unit for people or goods. Mankind and the usual materials used by people are just not created for such acceleration and stress.

There may be rare cases where this kind of transport may be possible, but it will not be an everyday transport system.

I'd rather wait for Star Trek transporter unit to be invented.

I really wish everyone luck on realizing big and new ideas, but Musk is a big talker, whom everybody is just paying attention to because he seems to have soooooo much money so he must be intelligent. But what did he really achieve besides Tesla and some minor space craft progress, which are both based on common technology?

@ddephor agreed
What had bill gates achieved other than Microsoft .... ?
Or Sergey or Page achieved other than google ?

Research is the key. As he had already claimed it would cost what air travel cost today. And he doesnot seem to me that big stupid to bring anything which is not economical or there is no market.

I am neither his fan or blind follower.

But if you remember, how big and expensive computers used to be back in 50s, 60s and were mainly used by businesses or at labs. When Toshiba brought its laptop in 80s, or when other manufacturers started making home computers, it was considered very stupid move and it was believed, that this thing is not going to be used as PC ever.

Somebody thought of doing something. Failed. Others got the idea. Found a loophole, someone found a solution. Did some improvement, came out with better and more reliable end product

Just lookup for the Hyperloop tests they've been making in the last years.

It seems promising, and Elon has a history of doesn't giving a fuck if he goes bankrupt trying to do something

It's all fun and games until you hit a bird or a mircolite or anything really. At that speed any fault at all will instantly destroy the vehicle and you along with it, not to mention that if you did crash land it would be the equivalent of a large meteor. Even if it can be achieved within our atmosphere it doesn't mean it's a good idea. Awesome yes, it's fucking great but don't fly that shit over my house or anywhere near me and my family

@kurtr thats why NASA dont send spacecraft to space

Every new transportation technology that could not use existing infrastructure and needed it's own infrastructure built from scratch, has not become big or completely failed in the last decades.
Hyperloop will be the same. You can build it, technologically not all ready, but most of it apparently not a really big issue. But building and operating the infrastructure is way too complex and too expensive.
Beeing a billionaire doesn't help here because we're talking sums that cannot be handled by a single person or company.

@ddephor it would happen exactly like the railways in the US were built - privately owned sections financed by banks. As for money it will just be printed - it's just a man made invention to assign a fixed value for goods and labour anyway and now it's not even backed by anything that exists only by promise of future goods. At least when it was backed by gold the work had already been done and value already existed. The entire world is in debt and we will simply make more because for now it works but one of the future generations are going to be majorly fucked when it collapses. But yeah we will build the shit out of it - people get hard thinking about owning networks and infrastructure.

@ddephor is there such thing as G force cancellation? I do code not mad scientist science lol

@jalebiBhai I agree, in the 60s nobody would have thought what is possible with todays technology. But we're talking about half a century of research and progress.

Musk promises "big fucking rockets" and Mars colonization for 2022/2024, less than 5 years. And we're talking about massive cost/ressource requirements and hard limitations by the laws of physics.

And the big question is: What for?
Why should mankind colonize Mars now where the technology and the knowledge of physics are obviously insufficient. Maybe we get around some problems and gather more knowledge to extend the laws of physics within the next decades, but now I don't see an advantage to send plenty of rockets and people to Mars.
We know we can do it, there is human technology there, but sending more stuff and people there just because we can is useless IMO.

Anyway, I assume that no significant count of people will ever leave the earth, because we will destroy ourself before we could be intelligent enough to do so.

@ddephor
The innovation we see today happening with such a pace is result of research of 100s of years. It was invention of transistors in 50s almost 6 decades ago, that made all the current innovation and technologies possible, be it computer, smartphone or bio tech
But, Agree with you, if not completely then to an extent. It's so terrible that we had fucked this planet and NASA is planning to set up human colony on mars. Just reflect pathetic human nature. They could use all the resource and money to make alternate fuel accessible to everyone.

@jalebiBhai and regarding Musk project, I stand with you, if its not feasible, it's a waste, just a one time experiment to show your strength. But he is saying it will be economical, so let's wait and watch

Why was my first thought if he owns a Thinkpad? :S

Im not a big fan of him and the vehicle can't possibly be efficient but he made PayPal which is pretty big and is one of the 100 richest people on this planet. Saying he's just a talker isn't really right.