Could drilling on the red planet offer some insight into dealing with that horrific, on-going saga of an oil spill off the Louisiana coast?
A host of solutions are being reviewed to cut off spewing oil from 5,000 feet below sea-level.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has put together a blue-ribbon scientific team to offer advice on the oil rig accident that occurred back on April 20th.
One expert that’s part of Chu’s hand-picked science team is George Cooper, a civil engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Cooper, an emeritus professor at the university, has done work for NASA on adapting mining techniques here on Earth for use on the red planet.
According to Cooper’s university website, he has been investigating drilling on Mars, work that would be done at low temperatures and in near vacuum. These conditions pose problems for the cooling of the cutting teeth and for the removal of the cuttings.
Cooper explains that, because of the low temperature and near vacuum of the Martian surface, it’s not possible to have a gas or liquid medium in the hole to cool the bit and remove the cuttings.
“It looks likely that the cuttings will be removed by mechanical means, for example by auger. We are investigating the basic mechanics of how augers work, and how they may be optimized for Martian conditions,” Cooper notes.
“We expect the drill bit teeth to be made of diamond. Because there will be no fluid flow around the bit to cool it, we can expect that the diamond bit teeth may be significantly heated. On the other hand, the ambient temperature will be very low, and the absence of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere will protect the diamond from oxidation. This is known to be a significant contributor to the wear of diamond drilling bits under Earth conditions.”
Time will tell whether Cooper’s observations about drilling on Mars can add to helping resolve the gushing oil problem and the worrisome impact on U.S. coastline.
By Leonard David