Robert D. Jones's Page
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- Are you interested in becoming an organizer in your area?
- Maybe--But Not Sure What to Organize
- Tell us about your experience with alternative energy:
- Mostly around the edges of the oil business all my life. My father (partnered with H.M Naylor) did a lot of the development work around Richmond, Texas. As for alternate fuels, mostly I have worked with the US Space Program -- which brings in electric and solar power as well as the budding fuel cell activity
- What excites you about this campaign?
- Having spent 22 years in the military (retired Lt Col, USAF) I have an abiding interest in keeping our nation secure. The dependence on foreign sources for vital resources is repugnant to me. Further, the export of our dollars is damaging to our economic security and must be stopped.
- What do you want to do to help?
- Pretty much whatever will be of value. I have a lot of experience in a number of areas (resume on request). Besides the military, I retired from IBM as one of their systems engineering and technical management trouble-shooters and until a year or so ago was the COO in a relatively small consulting company here in Houston. We services the major corporations and NASA in the areas mentioned above.
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Have you seen T. boones AUTO MATIC system to send
e-mail to your rep. You type in a few key strokes and
it auto adresses the e-mail to all your reps and the GOV.
of your state based on zip code. Has a sugested draft of a letter to send. NEVER EASYER. Spread the word to click on the ACTION CENTER at the main web site.
Right now, we are in the long arduous process of incorporation and tax paperwork to become a 501c. Once that is done, I will need all the help I can get running down sponsors and donations. My hope is to build an endowment over time that will allow the operating cost of the lab to be covered by interest so evry dime afterward can go toward the kids and the projects.
Any ideas you have are welcome.
Best Regards,
Norman
You are correct that a simple point to point run is less complex, and it is also true that for ETT switching and control is not as complex as one might initially think it would be. As with freeways, the ETT guideway is passive - the vehicles initiate the divergence to an off-line station. I believe that you will come to appreciate this when you are able to study the patent on www.et3.com
The ability of a capsule to merge or diverge from or to a off-line station is what allows ETT to safely achieve very high capacity with minimal infrastructure expense. Of course the high-speed switch sections are more expensive than standard tube guideway (about 10 times greater cost).
At a design speed of 350mph, the switch section is about 1000' long, and the deceleration distance is about one mile. Combine this with acceleration distance to re-join the flow of capsules in the main line, and at this design speed, the minimum normal spacing is about 3 mile intervals, but this would not likely be feasible unless occurring in a densely populated area or where several routes converge.
At a 170mph design speed, the distances are reduced by almost a factor of 4, (however capacity is cut in half to about 100k pph). So, it is desirable to have frequent stations accessing lower design speed branches to save switch construction and LEM expense.
Q1) I was somewhat curious regarding your advertised 2.5 million dollars per mile build-out cost. … it would seem to me that is perhaps an order of magnitude low.
Bob, you are obviously astute with regard to typical High Speed Rail (HSR) and maglev build cost being an order of magnitude greater than ETT build cost.
We did a detailed cost study in 2002 for a proposal and firm bid to the FHSRA (Fl HSR authority). The total bid was $253m for 96 miles of double tube guideway, three stations, and sufficient capsules to meet the minimum capacity specified in the RFP.
This .xls file shows many of the reasons why ETT cost is so much less than trains.
http://push.pickensplan.com/forum/attachment/download?id=2187034%3A...
Q2) The tube would have to be immune to shifts in the surrounding earth or you would have eto shut down the system should the seal be broken, let alone the tube become offset. Second, the mechanism of propulsion depends on some kind of controlled electro-magnetic pulse (my reference is the levitated train system in use today). Somewhere, somehow you have to produce that energy. If you provided information on how that would be economically accomplished, I must have missed it.
A2)The patent document available on www.et3.com should provide more detail to your questions about tube alignment adjustment, sealing, and Linear Electric Motor (LEM) propulsion, and how they are applied. Briefly:
The need for alignment adjustment for ETT is no different than HSR or maglev trains operating at the same design speed – manual adjustment is sufficient for speeds up to about 500mph in stable geologies. For higher design speeds, variouse levels of active alignment are disclosed in the ETT patent, and there will be higher costs associated with the additional equipment (estimated at about 25% increased cost). For hyper velocities – (up to 4000 mph) active alignment and underground construction will be required, the cost of underground ETT is at least 3 times greater.
Q3) The ETT would be economical only if treated like airlines treat routes today. From central hub to central hub. The cargo would have to be picked-up and delivered to the final destination using local transportation. Depending on how far that was from the hub, that could be a major power source/cost consideration.
A3) You are correct that initial ETT implementation will likely be on a hub and spoke plan, and that it will operate more like air-cargo at first with dependencies on existing modes at each end. One of the big advantages of ETT is the much finer granularity of accessibility – much like a freeway instead of HSR or air routes (smaller “off-line” stations distributed along the route according to demand – like exits on a freeway). Furthermore, ETT may be networked like the freeway system so cargo can travel non-stop. Since ETT is a fourth the cost of freeways, and 1/10th the cost of HSR, many more miles can be put in place for a given investment, dramatically increasing accessibility. ETT can eventually reach the “last mile” to directly serve most homes and businesses.
Please read my essay on ETT at my personal page.
Thanks,
Tony Toigo
They've done it before. If after this p.m. Meeting in Topeka, KS, they'll be monitoring for sure, they might start gettin' antzy...
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