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Gold/Mining/Energy : KOB.TO - East Lost Hills & GSJB joint venture -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rocket Red who wrote (15663)	9/27/2002 1:41:01 AM
From: u2bob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15703

Rocket Red - Uranium Power Corporation? Interesting, I know that ELH is a little confusing these days,so as we wait for Salty's Flare I thought I might respond to your post, and your moniker ! Take care Rocket man, hope you enjoy ! The Ultimate Wildcat Imagine drilling and producing a 5000' well in weather so cold that produced water freezes instantly. Imagine not knowing anything about the rock layers, the temperatures or the pressures you might encounter. Imagine doing this in a near vacuum, requiring power to be supplied by solar or nuclear generators, not gas or diesel engines. And the equipment must be lightweight and compact enough to transport 40 million miles through space to drill on Mars. NASA’s previous interest in drilling on Mars was limited to obtaining core samples. However, that changed with a startling discovery made by the Mars Global Surveyor about 2 years ago: Water may lie in porous rock layers near the Martian surface. Research suggests there is a layer between the basement rock and the Martian cryosphere, a region of ice below the planets surface similar to Earths permafrost, where substantial amounts of water may exist in liquid form. This is also the most likely place to find microbial Martian life forms. If there is a water source on the surface of Mars, manned missions to the planet become much more feasible. Besides providing something for the astro-nauts to drink, electricity from solar cells can seperate water into hydrogen gas for fuel for the return trip and oxygen to breathe. Upon discovering the possibility of water on Mars, NASA quickly formed the Mars Drilling Project and bumped up the planned launch window from 2020 to 2007. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter is scheduled to arrive at the Red Planet in late 2003 to gather data from ground-penetrating radar, which will supply valuable information about the depth of the cryosphere for the drilling project. Brainstorming Conventional drillpipe and drill collars would be too heavy (about 50 tons) to transport to Mars, but a composite coiled tubing unit might work. NASA scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratories have been investigating robotic drilling, casing while drilling and laser drilling as potential alternatives. Virtually any liquid based drilling fluid would be very difficult to work with at -85ºF. Drilling fluids would need to be heated and kept in pressurized tanks. (Any liquid would boil in the 0.1 psi Martian atmosphere). One of the hole-cleaning suggestions was to use air, which also could power the drilling motor at the end of the coiled tubing. However, compressors to raise Martian air from 0.1 psi up to drilling pressures may be too bulky for transport. The drilling experts suggested landing the mission near one of the polar ice caps so chunks of the frozen carbon dioxide could be thawed to create high-pressure gas. NASA scientists immediately rejected this, as future astronauts could not survive the -285ºF temperatures there. NASA scientists also would want to save the drill cuttings, as they would contain valuable information about the Red Planet's history. Using a regular bit and shale shakers would make this much more difficult. NASA said coring probably would be preferable for capturing and transporting rock samples. The drillers mentioned that although this would take less energy than conventional drilling, it would be much slower because core tubes often become stuck, coring bits dull quickly, and extracting the cores would require frequent trips of the drillstring, which is not good for coiled tubing. The well construction experts described the pros and cons of various lift systems like electric submersi-ble pumps and compressed-gas jet pumps. Several questions were raised: Can the liquid or compressed air system that is used in drilling be adapted to produce the well afterward? Will the rock be stable, or will the inside of the well tend to collapse during use? Will some form of casing be needed? How corrosive is Martian groundwater likely to be to equipment? Will the water be clean, or carry sand particles that would erode pumps? What is the underground temperature gradient? At what depth will the temperature and pressure be high enough for liquid water? What water-handling equipment will need to be heated to prevent freezing? NASA responded that it does not yet know the answers to any of these questions. Educating NASA Drew Hembling, a completion engineer for Saudi Aramco who participated in this late-night brainstorm-ing session, said drilling on Mars might be possible by 2007. “They have a lot to do before they spud their first well, but in many other areas, they're almost ready. Take thermal systems, for example. For decades, they've built equipment to resist everything from the deep cold beyond Pluto to the heat of space shuttle re-entries. They have the best people on this planet working these problems.” Hembling added a chief benefit of the discussions was educating NASA about the complexity of drilling and producing. “Members of the Mars Drilling Project now have a much better understanding of the challenges facing this mission,” he said.