New accelerator can blast very deep holes into Earth to provide access to geothermal resources

HyperSciences, a drilling company out of Washington, has unveiled details behind a patent it applied for on a new type of ram accelerator that would be used to blast super-deep holes into the Earth for the purpose of providing access to geothermal resources.

The company operates under a grant from Shell Oil which, it goes without saying, is particularly interested in drilling technology and new energy resources. At present, HyperSciences is experimenting with a bunch of different designs, all of which can be categorized to the layman as “guns”. That’s because each one fires “bullets” from it at a very high velocity, with the goal being to hit a target and vaporize it along with the projectile itself. 

Mark Russell, an aeronautical engineer who heads HyperSciences, claims that once his company gets the technology right, it could be used to drill deep enough to access geothermal resources at depths of up to two miles. 

Taking a closer look at the patent, what HyperSciences is proposing is loading a projectile onto a ram accelerator, at which point gas is pumped in and ignited, resulting in increased pressure within the accelerator’s chamber that is then used to push the projectile forward. 

The science behind the technology is so fine-tuned that it is now to the point where the projectile is pushed off the accelerator at speeds of up to 4,500MPH. 

What separates a ram accelerator from the traditional gun is the fact that it is used as both a barrel and chamber. Looking at it from a bigger picture, the ramjet accelerator is actually a deviation off of ramjet technology, wherein one shot creates a hole in the ground, and the subsequent firing of projectiles create deeper and deeper holes. It’s expensive and time consuming; as such, it warrants updating, which is where Russell and HyperSciences come in. The team hopes to improve their approach to this technology to the point that fewer shots are required but greater depths are achieved, and all for significantly less costs then what’s on the market today. 

Russell added that his team is also looking into adding plastic explosives to the projectiles themselves, as they believe this add-on might help increase the hole’s depth with each shot fired. 

Via Phys.org