WorldWide Drilling Resource

The Race to Drill Where No Man Has Drilled Before Compiled by the Editorial Staff of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Back in the 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union were in a race to space. The world was consumed by the narra- tive of who would make it to the last fron- tier first, but there was another less talked about race going on at the same time, which is still happening to this day. It’s the race to see which drilling expedi- tion will break through first - drilling into the mantle of the Earth or deep drilling on another planet or Moon. Why the mantle? Earthbound geo- logists dream about getting a g l i m p s e into the inner workings of the Earth. Researchers have attempted to drill into the mantle for over 50 years but have not had any success due to thick crust, bad luck, and an assortment of other problems. If a pristine chunk of mantle could be cored, it would help planetary scientists better understand what raw materials Earth accumulated when our solar system was young. It could also produce con- crete evidence for studies suggesting there may be vast quantities of water in the mantle. Although the amount of water is unknown, scientists have made a discovery using quantum-mechanical cal- culations while analyzing various possible structures deep in the Earth where a mineral called brucite might be found. Brucite is a water-filled mineral gen- erally thought to be too unstable to exist deep in the Earth. Calculations sug- gest the mineral and water within it could be found in the mantle, but an uncontaminated sample is needed to prove it. Drilling into the mantle is quite an inspiring task, but the pursuit to drill on another planet, moon, or space rock has garnered more exposure and budget over the years. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Resource Prospector mission has set its eyes on being the first mining expe- dition on another world. They plan to mine the Moon first in an effort to utilize resources found naturally in extraterrestrial soil to foster affordable and sus- tainable human exploration of deep space in the future. Honeybee Robotics tested their Planetary Deep Drill in a California gypsum quarry, where the rock forma- tions mimic conditions of future planetary drilling targets. The drill is designed to eventually reach historic depths below the surface of the Martian ice caps. Scientists eagerly await the day when pristine samples taken from within the mantle or deep within another space rock can be studied. Only time will tell which breakthrough will occur first. How- ever, in the coming years, we can expect to be drilling deeper than ever before both on Earth and elsewhere in the uni- verse. Historic drilling on Mars, deep within Earth, and the Moon could all occur in the near future. Images courtesy of NASA. 45 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® MAY 2017