Posted on 01/11/2022 12:49:12 PM PST by Red Badger
A combination of heat and high pressure allow this semi-autonomous boring robot to tunnel through undrillable rock - credit: Petra
San Francisco startup Petra says its new contactless thermal drilling robot can make steady progress through the hardest rock on Earth – stuff that would normally destroy drilling equipment – so quickly and cheaply that it could make a lot of underground infrastructure projects economically feasible.
The semi-autonomous "Swifty" robotic system can create 18-60 inch (46-152 cm) diameter tunnels through any geology, blasting the rock with an extremely hot, high-pressure spallation head such that it glows, chars and flings away.
Petra, founded by serial entrepreneur Kim Abrams, says it's demonstrated the robot's capabilities by boring a 24-inch tunnel through 20 feet of Sioux Quartzite – which Abrams describes in a CNBC interview as "the hardest rock on earth ... harder than bluestone granite ... the type of rock that would normally have to be dynamited." Swifty progressed at a rate of an inch a minute.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
I saw this on Star Trek, they were killing its babies. Kirk figured it out and all ended well iirc.
Hope they don’t hit a gas line.
They won’t...................
This is more like Dune’s ‘Stoneburner’ device................
“I saw this on Star Trek, they were killing its babies. Kirk figured it out and all ended well iirc.”
Can’t remember the name of the episode. It was the Horta’s eggs that the miners on whatever planet kept destroying. Mrs. Horta was pissed and had the power to do something about it (unlike Australians). Spock had to do a mind-meld to finally get to the bottom of the issue.
By the time the show ended, the Horta’s little tykes were left to hatch and then they were blasting their way through rock like mad and uncovering new mineral deposits, so needless to say, the miners loved them.
Bkmk
“Horta?”
5.56mm
Really odd. The government has been boring underground bunkers for decades with this kind of equipment. Why is one private company reaping the benefits of this gov’t technology and tax dollar-paid for equipment? Just like Lockheed and Boeing on gov’t obtained alien space technology. It seems some companies are just more equal than others.
As long as they stay away from my septic drain field, I’m cool with it.
“I’m a Doctor, not a bricklayer!”
Let me guess, it’s powered by windmills. /s
A little more info....
https://www.coolthings.com/petra-swifty-thermal-drilling-machine-super-heated-gas-pulverize-hardest-rocks/
We’ll need that when Earth’s core stops spinning.
They should team up with Musk’s Boring company.
And then Mush should send robotic units to the moon first and then to mars. Create underground environments where oxygen levels can be maintained.
Use robots to perfect maintaining environments for people. Once you have that down and sufficient redundancy. Then and only then, send people.
Unless it’s people you don’t like, then send them early.
“I saw this on Star Trek, they were killing its babies. Kirk figured it out and all ended well iirc.”
Can’t remember the name of the episode. It was the Horta’s eggs that the miners on whatever planet kept destroying.
—
“Devil in the Dark”
Saw the same thing on “This Old House” about a zillion years ago. They had a kerosene/oxygen torch with a stream of water shooting at the rock — they were texturing granite steps so they wouldn’t be slippery. The alternation of the hot oxy/kero with the cold water turned the rock to dust. They also used it to drill holes in the granite.
Old, old, old technology.
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