I can not imagine a market case for this. We have instant communication around the world, face-to-face, even form our homes and telephones. The need to actually be somewhere that quickly is very small, unless you need to go beat somebody up with your fists (i.e., military). Just loading the fuel will take longer than the flight.
I was watching the live stream and when I saw the video simulation for this part start, I thought "please don't say what you are about to say".Now that he said it, it is becoming the distraction I thought it would. Imagine shutting down New York and Hong Kong harbor, all air and sea traffic almost simultaneously (!!), while about 80 to 100 members of the 1% fly in their fancy rocket. Oh, but wait, some of you say, the barge will be 20+ miles out in the ocean - it will be awesome. I am not sure how many here have traveled 20 miles by sea, but it is not quick. Then the people and the cargo would need to be transferred. I have done about a 10 mile barge transfer while anchored out in Hong Kong and that took about a 45 minute transit every time. Beer bet. This will never happen.
A fast ferry will take the passengers there in under 40 minutes.
In an economic and risk sense, there is every single reason imaginable why it won't work. Not the least of which the airlines, global shipping companies, and many others would use every single lobbying power in the book to stop it if it ever got close to having a chance of entering operation.
It still looks too expensive to be practical.
Floating pads outside territorial waters requires transfer by boat, which pretty much negates the whole point of fast transport. It also rules out cities that don't have access to the sea, which includes most European capitals.
Quote from: Nibb31 on 09/29/2017 01:22 pmFloating pads outside territorial waters requires transfer by boat, which pretty much negates the whole point of fast transport. It also rules out cities that don't have access to the sea, which includes most European capitals.A quick search find that fast ferries can do >60 km/h and territorial waters extend 22 km out. So it would add 20-30 minutes at both ends of the trip. The ferry could also be used for all the various checkin procedures. If a one-way trip length is 1-2 hours you can even return the same day.And for rich VIPs in a hurry you can use a helicopter.
I think this is better interpreted, at least in the short term, as a sales pitch for space tourism. Paying a few thousand dollars to save some hours on plane, it has a quite limited customer base. And if you don't fill the rockets prices go even higher.A few thousand dollars to go to space however?
I can not imagine a market case for this.
Just loading the fuel will take longer than the flight.