I’ve been wondering how much deeper we could make it with the advances in materials tech.
The biggest issues are heat around the head, since it’s getting super hot down that far, as well as twisting the bit without warping the shaft. By the time the energy is transferred across that much piping, things tend to get very twisty.
I bet by now we could easily drill into the hollow earth!
Might make sense to just have the motor at the bottom of the drill, then you just need to supply power and coolant down. Need to anchor into something though so it actually does anything and doesn’t just spin the cables
I’ve been wondering how much deeper we could make it with the advances in materials tech.
The biggest issues are heat around the head, since it’s getting super hot down that far, as well as twisting the bit without warping the shaft. By the time the energy is transferred across that much piping, things tend to get very twisty.
I bet by now we could easily drill into the hollow earth!
Xkcd did this a couple of weeks ago https://youtu.be/r7B0MzvwDcA
That was at a specific rate though, and assumed you were needing to be present on the digging device.
Might make sense to just have the motor at the bottom of the drill, then you just need to supply power and coolant down. Need to anchor into something though so it actually does anything and doesn’t just spin the cables