Category: CE 2021

Posted By: W. Steve Wilson

Posted: April 5, 2021

The Biden Administration has released a plan to rebuild various components of the United States infrastructure. These components include, among other things, roads and bridges, ports and airports, the electrical grid and broadband, and—railroads.

Circulating on social media and the Internet are several maps showing expanded Amtrak routes and a hoped-for High-Speed Rail network –

[Credit: www.axios.com  Link: AmTrak Map]  

[Credit: www.businessinsider.com  Link: HSR Map]

It’s hard to say if either of these maps will become a reality, but it’s something to think about.

Riding the Rails

Although I’ve “ridden the rails” in the past, I must admit that I opt for driving or flying like many people. I wonder if a high-speed rail line would induce me to make a different choice. You might be considering a similar question.

One way to think about it would be to consider where I’d travel. I might go from my home in Chicago to St. Louis—a five-hour drive or a two-hour train ride (after I drive to the train station.) I’d likely drive. But to Orlando, 1200 miles? I’ve made that drive—never again. Flying gets me there in about two-and-a-half hours, high-speed rail in six—maybe, with no stops. If it’s comparable in price—I just might make the switch if the time spent at the train station is minimal.

Now let’s consider Los Angeles or Seattle, both about 2,000 miles. Flight times are four-and-a-half to five hours. High-speed rail would be about ten hours (assuming 200 mph) with no stops. I’d probably still fly. It looks like my choices are similar to passengers around the world. China and Europe’s results indicate high-speed rail works best in middle-distance, high volume markets—from 90 to 750 miles. Shorter distances, people drive for longer distances, they fly.

Hyperloop Travel

But there could be a third option—the Hyperloop. Hyperloop travel is via a pod, driven at high speed. Due to air friction, these pods would run in a vacuum in a tub or tunnel. Companies right now are working on proofs of concept and prototypes. The Smithsonian is launching an exhibition entitled Futures, running from November 2021 through July 2022. Virgin Hyperloop is a featured exhibitor with their groundbreaking vehicle, the Pegasus XP-2, the first vehicle to carry hyperloop passengers.

To get a feel for how hyperloop travel might be, check out this video from Virgin Hyperloop—The Passenger Experience

A hyperloop pod could travel theoretically at speeds approaching 750 miles per hour—Chicago to Los Angeles in three hours. Terminals could require smaller footprints—no runways, maybe even located in downtown urban locations. Passenger volume is adjustable, departure times flexible, and all powered by renewable energy. Now that would get me off an airplane.

Final Thought

Once we colonize the Moon and Mars, “rail” travel might be our only option. Without an appreciable atmosphere (yes, the Moon does have an extremely rarified atmosphere), air travel, as we conceive of it now, just won’t work. [Note: in an upcoming blog, I’ll talk about the Mars Helicopter]. Both environments, however, would be ideal for hyperloops as air friction would be inconsequential.

What combination of speed, convenience, and cost would convince you to take high-speed rail rather than drive or fly? Should we jump ahead and build a hyperloop on some routes? Would you travel 2000 miles in a vacuum tube to get to LA in three hours? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts.

I hope you will enjoy my posts and if you’d like to discuss a particular topic or stay connected, please slide over to my Contact page. Please join my email list as well to receive advance copies of upcoming short fiction.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

In my IT Consulting career, I would need to walk into a room and present a new solution to a client—often a new client. We would listen to what they asked for, examine the client’s needs, muster our analysis, and craft our recommendations. At some point, we would need to stand up in front of a frequently skeptical crowd and say something to the effect of – “OK, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Almost a decade ago, when Curiosity landed on Mars, I would play a little thought game with myself. Imagine the design meeting when they proposed the Sky Crane and got to the point where someone says – “OK, here’s what we’re going to do.” At least my proposals as an IT guy had the advantage of likely having been done before.

I thought today I’d present three hypothetical meetings where a new concept is presented that doesn’t just reflect out-of-the-box thinking but obliterates the box—two from SpaceX and one from NASA.

Setting aside my thought game, these teams have solved some difficult and seemingly impossible technology and engineering problems. It always amazes me as a spectator that there are people out there that do these things. Unbelievable.

Landing a Rocket on the Ocean

SpaceX needed to retrieve the Falcon boosters for re-use but were faced with the physical limitations of retaining enough fuel to return to Florida and still get the payload into the orbit required by the customer.

Imagine a scene where someone says, “OK, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll buy a barge and retrofit it as an autonomous spaceport drone ship. We’ll tow it out into the Atlantic Ocean and land the booster on that.” Who does that? SpaceX did, and the solution has proven successful in retrieving reusable boosters.

A Skydiving Starship

The SpaceX Starship needed to bleed energy and speed in order to land. For a fully propulsion drive descent and landing, they would have needed too much fuel.

So, someone says, “OK, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll turn off the engines, have the ship turn on its side, and drop just like a skydiver. When we get slow enough and low enough, we’ll restart the engines, turn it back vertical and land it on its tail. That should work.” They’re still working on it but watching the tests is exciting. Here’s a link to a recent test. I can’t wait to see the next one—I hope they’ll stick the landing again on SN11.

A Crane on Mars

NASA needed to get a rover on Mars. How do you land more than a ton on a distant planet after traveling 293 million miles? The timing had to be perfect—Mars in the right place, the right time of day (sol) in Mars’s rotation to land on the site you’d selected. Add to that the need to have the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter overhead to relay signals and take pictures.  

Once you get there, you need to land. This is where we have the conversation – “OK, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll use aerobraking to slow down. Then we’ll release a parachute, and since that won’t be enough, we’ll use a rocket pack to slow down and hover. Then we’ll lower the rover to the surface on cables, let it go, and then fly away.” And then they solved all the complex engineering and technology problems and did it—not once—but twice. Take a look; it was a fantastic feat. Perseverance Landing

Was there ever a time when you needed to propose a radical new idea or maybe just a new one that nobody thought would work? Feel free to leave a comment.

I hope you will enjoy my posts and if you’d like to discuss a particular topic or stay connected, please slide over to my Contact page. Please join my email list as well to receive advance copies of upcoming short fiction. Thank you for visiting my blog.

Welcome to my author website, and thank you for clicking over to read my blog.

I thought I’d use this inaugural post to let you know what to expect—my thoughts and excitement about new developments and interesting topics in Science and Technology.

Now I recognize those are broad topics and could cover just about anything. I’ll limit my scope to subjects that inform my Sci-Fi writing—mostly. You’ll see posts on rocketry, lunar and planetary exploration, deep space discoveries, genetics, medicine, technology, and renewable energy. On occasion, I may need to comment on political science, social science, and religion, but always related to my fiction.

Truthfully—I love research, and building a fictional future world means I get to cover a wide swath of our modern society. You never know when you’ll come across an idea for a new mystery, a plot twist, a hidden clue, or a surprise solution. So I’ll share what I discover and hope you find it interesting.

On the other hand, I don’t spend my whole life in the real world. I’m an avid Sci-Fi and Mystery reader and movie watcher. Every once in a while, I’ll veer off and post a book, series, or movie review. I’ll post about old and new entries and touch on a classic now and then. B-movies will, I’m sure, make an appearance.

I hope you will enjoy my posts and if you’d like to discuss a particular topic or stay connected, please slide over to my Contact page. Please join my email list as well to receive advance copies of upcoming short fiction.

Thank you again for visiting my blog.