Re:Millimeter wave technology drills 100 meters into granite
by westurner on Tuesday June 23, 2026 @09:25PM
(#48653986)
Why mmwave instead of ultrasonic? FWIU 28 kHz shreds the quartzite in granite?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Millimeter wave technology drills 100 meters into granite
by hangonhn on Tuesday June 23, 2026 @11:20PM
(#48654691)
Isn't the idea here to gasify the rock by essentially microwaving it? With ultrasound, wouldn't you still need to remove the leftover rocks?
Re:Millimeter wave technology drills 100 meters into granite
by westurner on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @05:40PM
(#48665951)
[Thermal fracturing or spallation, meant to displace or weaken the material for excavation] does gasify some of the water and minerals, but excavation is still necessary.
I started designing a combined unit for this (mmwave + ultrasound) with TLA+ and Rust, but don't have any use for drilling and tunneling myself.
I got into this because a bronze scepter of certain dimensions might carry a 28 khz resonance for ~30s, which - with nanodiamond drilling sand from e.g. pyrolyzed ash and sand - could explain the observed ancient copper core drilling speeds.