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Re:German students win hyperloop competition, reaching 200 mph by mabbo on Monday August 28, 2017 @03:47PM (#15119493)
> What happens to passengers if the seal fails on the vehicle, and then all the air is sucked into the vacuum?

I fly a lot for work. Every week, someone gives me a demonstration of what to do when this happens.

Re:German students win hyperloop competition, reaching 200 mph by mikeash on Monday August 28, 2017 @05:29PM (#15120237)
Unfortunately, that won't work. Oxygen masks only work up to a certain altitude, which is roughly the altitude where airliners cruise. At pressures lower than that, even pure oxygen isn't enough to sustain you.

You don't die instantaneously when exposed to vacuum, although it is pretty quick. I wonder if it would be possible to repressurize the tube (by blowing a big hole in it?) within 15 seconds or so.

Re:German students win hyperloop competition, reaching 200 mph by Fishman343 on Monday August 28, 2017 @06:49PM (#15120787)
The trouble with blowing a hole in the tube somewhere to re-pressurise is that whatever is inside the hole is hit by a wall of air travelling somewhere around the speed of sound. There are a LOT of problems with hyperloop not limited to someone walking up to the tube and shooting it with a .50 Desert Eagle, earthquakes, and the expansion and contraction of the tube as the sun rises and sets.

It's definitely the most unlikely of Elon Musk's plans.

Re:German students win hyperloop competition, reaching 200 mph by namlem on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @01:36AM (#15122315)
The hyperlink won't be a vacuum. It's just a low air pressure chamber. The plan has never been to maintain a vacuum since that's too difficult at such large scales.
Re:German students win hyperloop competition, reaching 200 mph by mikeash on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @09:46AM (#15124200)
Hyperloop is planned to run at roughly 0.1% of sea level air pressure. For the purposes of a discussion about human survival in the event of pressurization failure, that's effectively a vacuum.