3 ms·
I wonder how far off we are from vaporizing the material and venting it out of the tunnel. Probably way more expensive but you could go faster and don’t need t
by bilsbie 2y ago
I wonder how far off we are from vaporizing the material and venting it out of the tunnel.
Probably way more expensive but you could go faster and don’t need to deal with hauling the material out. It might glassify the surrounding soil and make its own support structure too.
- gosub100 2y agoThis topic has been mentioned in regards to digging super deep bore holes for geothermal energy. The high temps a couple miles down started to soften metal drill bits but some companies are working on lasers that are capable of melting rock to allow further digging.
- lightedman 2y agoAn 80W CO2 LASER is plenty of power. I regularly engrave the living shit out of stone with mine, and that goes a few millimeters deep. Get a couple kW in the same wavelength (10640nm) with a proper adjustable focus (movable diopter) and a galvo and a vacuum assist and you can just start raster-scanning your way through the rock.