4 ms·
There is definitely an economic changeover point, I’m sure I read they will use conventional drilling down to a certain depth, before switching to MMW I doubt
by audunw 4mo ago
There is definitely an economic changeover point, I’m sure I read they will use conventional drilling down to a certain depth, before switching to MMW
I doubt argon is the purge gas.
- tekacs 4mo agoYeah, they say in their launch video for Project Obsidian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmrna_r_b3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmrna_r_b3A) that they'll drill the first 3km using conventional rotary drilling and mmWave beyond that. I'd be curious if anyone (perhaps the parent) knows why – my assumption is that it's more expensive and/or not as reliable to drill higher up with mmWave, not least because the ground might be uneven materials, etc., and then it becomes something predictable and harder to rotary drill lower down, incl. as you would spend more time doing things like replacing bits low down and sending things up and down?
- rcxdude 4mo agoThat's pretty much it. They're not going to beat conventional drilling on price at lower depths, so why bother with it?