 |
Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
 |
SkyTran's Sky Pod MagLev Taxis
SkyTran is a transportation concept that visualizes sky pods that magnetically levitate from their rails for a super-smooth ride. Sound fictional? Well, it still is, but Unimodal Systems has put a lot of thought into it.

(SkyTran Sky Pod concept)
SkyTran employs personal sized vehicles that are streamlined and fully computer-controlled. Like a taxi, you ride as a passenger (not a driver) on one-foot-wide "guideways" built above the ground, so that you are safely separated from ground traffic. Like a freeway, there will be a non-stop, high-speed section of guideway with "exits" and "entrances" that lead to and from off-line SkyTran stations. These off-line stations are essential for non-stop, high-speed travel.
Fewer moving-parts requires less maintenance, computer control is safer and more efficient than a human driver, and light-weight parts reduce the all-around cost of everything. Having personal vehicles available at all times frees users from schedules and allows non-stop travel to their destination - which is faster and more efficient. Vehicles suspended below the track reduces torsion stress around turns - reducing construction cost - and allows for a covered track that never gets rain, snow, or other debris on it - reducing maintenance and increasing safety and efficiency.

(SkyTran megacity)
Here are some of the technical details:
Because vehicles are extremely light, the structure of the guideway itself can be lean and light-weight while still far exceeding strength criteria. Inexpensive standard utility poles like the ones (street lights and traffic signals use) at 30 foot intervals support the guideway. The major benefit of light-weight construction is that the cost of the system is much smaller, allowing more track to be built for a given budget... SkyTran does not need the large swaths of land that rail systems need and no one would ever need to give up their home for SkyTran to be built.
Building SkyTran will be more like installing street or traffic lights than like building a massive freeway or train section. The guideway has fewer fabrication steps than an inner city road and each mile can be erected in 7 days or less. The guideway contains simple wire that interacts with magnets in the moving vehicles to levitate them. This passive maglev cushion gives vehicles a very smooth and efficient ride. Maglev technology does not have parts that touch, increasing the reliability of the system. Increasing reliability further, electromagnetic switches, used for vehicles turning or exiting the guideway, need none of the maintenance that mechanical switches would need. The guideway also has electronics for sensing and propelling the vehicles. The only major moving part in the system is the vehicle. The system's regenerative braking system recaptures the energy of vehicles braking at their destination - increasing efficiency.
Although there a lot of science-fictional forebears for the idea of mass transit systems, I was particularly interested in the ability to just step into a randomly selected pod, type in a destination, and let the system take you there. This excerpt about bubble cars is from Larry Niven's 1976 novel A World Out of Time.
The car seemed to rest on the very tips of the grass blades. It did not shift as Corbell climbed in. Mirelly-Lyra gestured to him to slide over... and climbed in beside him. She bent to the console, hesitated, then punched in numbers. "We go for your pressure suit," said the translator at her belt.
The car moved smoothly away. Mirelly-Lyra half relaxed; she was not steering. Already, Corbell knew that he could not return by car. He didn't know the destination number of the house.
Read a lot more details at SkyTran via Physorg; thanks to Daniel Durvin for the tip on this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/13/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.
| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories -
("
Transportation
")
CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride
Imagine digging your heels in to a steam horse!
Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked
It was worth a try!
Japan Automated Cargo Transport
'It was not a roadway at all, as Graham understood such things...' - HG Wells, 1899.
Tesla Electric 'Giga Train' Operational In Germany
'...the cars are wedge-shaped at both ends.' - John Jacob Astor IV, 1894.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
|
 |
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
More SF in the News Stories
More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories
|
 |