Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 144 The most important weapon of the country
"With our current technological means, it is impossible to do this; we do not have the corresponding technological strength."

His voice was filled with dejection and helplessness: "To this day, the deepest well that human civilization has dug on Earth is still the Kola Superdeep Borehole, which was dug nearly a hundred years ago by that once-existing massive nation under special world circumstances. It was dug with the full strength of the entire nation and reached a depth of about 1.2 meters, taking 22 years to complete."

Subsequently, due to technological and demand reasons, we also dug some exploratory wells, but the depth was generally around 1 meters, and we did not continue to dig deeper.

With our current technological capabilities, given enough time, it's theoretically possible to drill through the Earth's crust. But... the key is time.

Jiang Yang knew that in this cycle of life, he had wasted more than ten days in hibernation, leaving the human world only 86 days to prepare.

The thickness of the Earth's crust varies in different places. In the mid-ridges of certain mountain ranges near the ocean, due to geological activity and the fact that the crust has just formed, the thickness can be as low as about 5 kilometers.

The thickness on land is at least 20 kilometers.

Deep-sea excavation is a more complex environment, and all things considered, it may be less labor-intensive than excavating directly on land.

However, whether on land or at sea, digging through the earth's crust in just 86 days is an impossible task.

That would involve digging right through the earth's crust!
As the depth increases, the underground environment becomes increasingly harsh. For example, at a depth of about 1 meters, the temperature of the rock under pressure can rise to around 200 degrees Celsius.

Furthermore, due to the high temperature and pressure, the rock will exhibit creep properties, flowing slowly like a fluid, compressing the well wall, and eventually leading to collapse.

Moreover, even the most advanced geological exploration methods can only roughly and generally detect the underlying structure, which means that it is impossible to predict what will be encountered during the excavation process.

It's possible that they've unearthed a water-rich rock layer, causing a large amount of water to gush out and instantly destroy the excavation equipment; it's also possible that they've unearthed a space rich in flammable gas, instantly triggering an explosion; or it's possible that they've unearthed a geologically fractured zone, and so on.

And there's one more crucial point.

Excavation equipment that is too long can also severely impact performance.

A 10-meter-long special alloy steel pole appears very tough and indestructible. However, when its length is increased to 100 meters, it exhibits a soft, noodle-like texture.

What happens when the length increases to 1 meters?

It's softer than noodles. Drilling requires power, so how is that power transmitted to the drill bit through this 10,000-meter steel rod that's even softer than noodles?
High temperature and pressure can also quickly damage drill bits, necessitating frequent replacements. Each time a drill bit is replaced, the entire 10,000-meter drill rod must be completely pulled out.

During the extraction process, it's impossible to raise the drill rod directly to a height of 10,000 meters, right?
This requires disassembling the drill bit section by section. After replacing the drill bit and lowering it back into the well, it needs to be reassembled section by section.

The drill bit replacement may take one or two weeks to complete—which is fast enough—and then the new drill bit may break down again after less than an hour of drilling, and then it will have to be replaced again.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole, after reaching a drilling depth of 12,000 meters, took about six years to excavate the final 262 meters, demonstrating the immense difficulty of the excavation.

Even with the significant advancements in technology today, which have reduced the difficulty of excavating ultra-deep wells at depths of 10,000 meters, they still remain a matter of national importance.

Even the weakest points of the Earth's crust on land are at least 2 meters deep. It's no exaggeration to say that the feat of drilling through the Earth's crust, in terms of difficulty and significance, is in no way inferior to humanity's first manned lunar landing!

To complete such a magnificent project in just 86 days is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Faced with this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, all participants in the video conference room fell silent.

After a moment's thought, Sun Changhe, head of the Doomsday Project Advisory Group, asked, "Is there no alternative to digging through the Earth's crust to directly probe the mantle?"

Without hesitation, the expert gave a definitive answer: "No."

"Okay. Since current drilling technology cannot penetrate the earth's crust within 86 days, are there any new technologies with potential?"

"Yes, ion drilling. Its technical principle is to abandon the traditional method of grinding and cutting, and then using drilling fluid to cool the drill bit and bring the rock fragments back to the wellhead. Instead, it directly generates high-temperature plasma and sprays it onto the rock to vaporize it."

Then, gas cooling technology is used to quench the rock steam, causing it to condense into particles instantly. These particles are then blown directly out of the wellhead by high-pressure gas for further processing.

To make an analogy, it's roughly like putting a red-hot iron ball on a block of ice.

The heat from the iron ball instantly melts and vaporizes the ice and water, causing them to evaporate directly, thus 'drilling' a well.

Theoretically, once ion drilling technology matures, its drilling speed can be extremely fast, potentially reaching 1000 meters per day, with a 2-meter deep well requiring only 20 days. Of course, this is only a theoretical speed. Furthermore, it can only be applied to land and cannot be used for seabed drilling.

Sun Changhe slowly closed his eyes, lost in thought. Beside him, Lu Zhaoming and others with scientific backgrounds quickly retrieved relevant materials on ion drilling, reading and taking notes simultaneously.

"Provide detailed information on the current progress, industry scale, and practical applications of ion drilling technology."

"Yes."

The leading expert quickly organized his thoughts and slowly said, "Currently, in the laboratory, small-scale ion drilling equipment has been successfully developed and has entered the practical verification stage. In terms of real-world applications, some tunnel excavation projects have attempted to use it, but due to the high failure rate and cost, they ultimately chose to abandon it..."

He gave a detailed account of the situation.

After another period of silent contemplation, Sun Changhe looked at the expert.

"Since finished products already exist, at least theoretically speaking, there are no fundamental obstacles to manufacturing ion drilling equipment capable of undertaking deep well excavation tasks of over 2 meters; the only obstacles are engineering and technical ones."

There are currently 86 days until the end of the world. To be on the safe side, let's allow 50 days for final data mining and analysis, leaving 36 days remaining.

Sun Changhe looked at the members of the council and decision-making group who had also attended the meeting: "I suggest that we mobilize the world's resources, convene all experts in relevant fields, requisition all research institutions and relevant component manufacturers, and provide unlimited supplies of materials and manpower to develop a usable ion drilling device within 36 days!"

(End of this chapter)