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Petra's remarkable thermal bore cuts through undrillable rock
https://newatlas.com ^ | January 06, 2022 | Loz Blain

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: bluestonegranite; kimabrams; petra; sanfrancisco; siouxquartzite; swifty
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To: Red Badger

Mark I Volcano Creator. Just aim down and start her up!


21 posted on 01/11/2022 1:56:16 PM PST by Sparticus (Primary the Tuesday group!)
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To: Red Badger

The Core wasn’t a horrible movie.


22 posted on 01/11/2022 1:57:04 PM PST by RandallFlagg ("Okay. As long as the paperwork is clean, you boys can do what you like out there." -Fifi)
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To: Red Badger

This would be a great optional item for a car if mounted forward facing.
You could get through traffic jams much easier.


23 posted on 01/11/2022 1:58:58 PM PST by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clinton's )
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To: Red Badger

Can’t wait to see the DPRK start using it for executions.


24 posted on 01/11/2022 2:00:08 PM PST by fruser1
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To: Sparky1776

Lol


25 posted on 01/11/2022 2:05:21 PM PST by Sawdring
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To: Red Badger
Wait a minute! Wait a Minute! I've seen how this ends!!!!!!


26 posted on 01/11/2022 2:05:48 PM PST by Kartographer (“We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor”)
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To: Born to Conserve

Worked on a system for a prof. from Vermont in the late 60’s.
1/2 in pipe w/diesel and a concentric 1 1/2 pipe and a few
hundred hp compressor.


27 posted on 01/11/2022 2:19:45 PM PST by sasquatch
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To: Red Badger

From the headline, I thought this was going to be about that ancient site in Jordan.


28 posted on 01/11/2022 2:23:57 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: DannyTN

The extension cord length and diameter of the wires would have to be YUGE.


29 posted on 01/11/2022 3:35:53 PM PST by Glad2bnuts ((“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer,)
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To: M Kehoe
Horta

30 posted on 01/11/2022 3:57:07 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Glad2bnuts

Just strap a nuclear reactor to it’s back.


31 posted on 01/11/2022 4:01:07 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: Red Badger

Sioux Quartzite is extremely hard (7.5 on the Mohs hardness scale)


32 posted on 01/11/2022 4:05:59 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: iontheball

“Alien technology”? Really?

Do you think that if the aliens were here they would let the puny humans continue to think they ran the joint? That they would give a rat’s ass about how we run our affairs?

We would either be fodder or slaves.

Then again, with what governments are trying to pull right now, perhaps you’re not so far off...


33 posted on 01/11/2022 5:10:11 PM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: bhl

THANKS!..........................


34 posted on 01/12/2022 5:05:34 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: RandallFlagg

It was a comedy.

I laughed at it all the way..................


35 posted on 01/12/2022 5:38:59 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: HereInTheHeartland

Until you hit their gas tank...................


36 posted on 01/12/2022 5:43:26 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Don W

We would either be fodder or slaves.

“We’ll Make Great Pets”


37 posted on 01/13/2022 11:19:35 PM PST by rxh4n1
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