Safety Outlines

A hyperloop would be a high-tech, high-energy, potentially lethal manned system. For such systems, safety accounting in advance is necesary. Some might be probability or assumed event-frequency estimates, others would be operation sequence plans for normal operations, emergencies, and disaster recovery.

What list of conditions will trigger emergency stopping of one car and then the whole line? Once this list is declared, is the system still effectively functional?

Once stopped, what system or criterion will govern venting of the tube to atmosphere? How automated, how fast, how predictable from a passenger's point of view? Is it adequate to assure passengers that they will be able to open their capsule doors to evacuate?

Will this vehicle have anything like an emergency-stop cord accessible to passengers? It can't; but then what builds in us confidence in the control structure that enables escape...? Actually, emergency stop is not needed, but some input to vent the tube if the capsule is stopped, might be needed. This issue reminds me the emergency call button in an elevator... (i.e., famous for being ignored in bad circumstances...)

What durability wrt. (with respect to) solid-object strikes will the compressor_1 fan have? What breakdown modes? Can blades break off, and can they then fly out and shred things?

What in detail would be the effect of an instant major breach in the tube, at some distance from one of the moving capsules? Does the inrushing air bleed in like diffusion or move like a shock wave? Would a stopped capusle accelerated by such a shock wave decelerate due to air drag in good time?