5 ms·
Vaporized into what? Something that you’ll have to keep heated to 5000c for 20km until you can vent it?
by FounderBurr 5y ago
Vaporized into what? Something that you’ll have to keep heated to 5000c for 20km until you can vent it?
- scotty79 5y agoApparently that's what they intend. I wonder how you can keep 20km oven warm enough.
- DustinGadal 5y agoThey'll be pumping neutral gas (probably N2 or argon) to purge the borehole. I would expect the ablated material to resolidify as fine particulate, which would get carried to the surface at ambient temperature and trapped in a filter. A 20km borehole with a 10cm diameter is only ~157m3 of rock. If the dig takes four weeks (which would be unprecedentedly fast), you only need to purge ~64cm3/s, which is pretty trivial. They'll need to do something like mix the dust into concrete. Silicate dust is a respiratory hazard. But that doesn't strike me as a significant hurdle.