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DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of Rig Parameter Data Using Drilling Process Modeling Constraints, Volume 4: Utah FORGE Well 78B-32

Drill rig parameter measurements are routinely used during deep well construction to monitor and guide drilling conditions for improved performance and reduced costs. While insightful into the drilling process, these measurements are of reduced value without a standard to aid in data evaluation and decision making. In the main body of this work (Volume 1), a method is demonstrated whereby rock reduction model constraints are used to interpret drilling response parameters; the method could be applied in real-time to improve decision-making in the field and to further discern technology performance during post-drilling evaluations. Drilling parameters are evaluated using laboratory-validated rock reduction models for predicting the phenomenological response of drag bits (Detournay and Defourny, 1992) in computational algorithms. The method presented has applicability to development of advanced analytics on future geothermal wells using real-time electronic data recording for improved performance and reduced drilling costs. A drilling cost model is also used to show the tradeoff between rate of penetration and bit life and the influence on interval drilling costs. Details of the bit specifications and performance are cataloged in an independent volume, documented under separate cover, for each of the four wells, and include Volume 2: Utah FORGE 16A(78)-32; Volume 3: Utah FORGE 56-32; Volume 4: Utah FORGE 78B-32 and Volume 5: Utah FORGE 16B(78)-32.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of Rig Parameter Data Using Drilling Process Modeling Constraints, Volume 3: Utah FORGE Well 56-32

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of Rig Parameter Data Using Drilling Process Modeling Constraints, Volume 1: Summary of Utah FORGE Wells 16A(78)-32, 56-32, 78B-32 and 16B(78)-32

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

lllinois Storage Corridor CarbonSAFE Phase III: Pre-drilling Site Assessment: Prairie State Generating Company

The Illinois Storage Corridor project will drill a stratigraphic test well as part of the Illinois Storage Corridor CarbonSAFE Phase 3 project near the Prairie State Generating Company coal-fired power plant near Marissa, Illinois. The pre-drilling site evaluation has considered the primary target reservoirs, the Potosi Dolomite and St. Peter Sandstone, and primary seal, the Maquoketa Group. Data to be collected from the well include core, fluid samples, in situ well tests, geophysical logs intended to provide information on lithologic, geomechanical, and geophysical characteristics to determine the feasibility for the geologic sequestration of 50 million metric tons or more of injected carbon dioxide. The planned drilling site has been evaluated using available subsurface geologic data and analyses from the Illinois Basin. These data provide lithologic and structural information, shallow groundwater resource distribution, location of known nearby wellbores, and regional drilling characteristics. The data were used to generate geologic structure and isopach maps for the target reservoir and caprock strata and for prognosing the tops of major lithologic units to aid drilling and coring procedures. The regional analyses indicate that no known structural features are expected to negatively impact the target storage reservoir or caprock. No protected and sensitive areas, groundwater resources, or existing resource development are expected to be impacted by the proposed well drilling activities. The well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of approximately 5,600 feet (1,707 m) and terminate in the Precambrian. Cores (up to 5 intervals) will be collected from the Maquoketa Group, confining units above the St. Peter Sandstone, St. Peter Sandstone, confining units of the Potosi Dolomite and the Potosi Dolomite. Water samples will be attempted to be collected from the St. Peter Sandstone and Potosi Dolomite. Potential impact on drilling progress is a lost circulation zone in the Potosi Dolomite, which has been demonstrated to have intermittent cavernous porosity from karstification elsewhere in the Illinois Basin. This document also presents a preliminary coring and sampling program, proposed logging suite, and well testing program, all of which will be reviewed during drilling.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

NASA NTRS2012

Single Piezo-Actuator Rotary-Hammering (SPaRH) Drill

The search for present or past life in the Universe is one of the most important objectives of NASA's exploration missions. Drills for subsurface sampling of rocks, ice and permafrost are an essential tool for astrobiology studies on other planets. Increasingly, it is recognized that drilling via a combination of rotation and hammering offers an efficient and effective rapid penetration mechanism. The rotation provides an intrinsic method for removal of cuttings from the borehole while the impact and shear forces aids in the fracturing of the penetrated medium. Conventional drills that use a single actuator are based on a complex mechanism with many parts and their use in future mission involves greater risk of failure and/or may require lubrication that can introduce contamination. In this paper, a compact drill is reported that uses a single piezoelectric actuator to produce hammering and rotation of the bit. A horn with asymmetric grooves was design to impart a longitudinal (hammering) and transverse force (rotation) to a keyed free mass. The drill requires low axial pre-load since the hammering-impacts fracture the rock under the bit kerf and rotate the bit to remove the powdered cuttings while augmenting the rock fracture via shear forces. The vibrations 'fluidize' the powdered cuttings inside the flutes reducing the friction with the auger surface. This action reduces the consumed power and heating of the drilled medium helping to preserve the pristine content of the acquired samples. The drill consists of an actuator that simultaneously impacts and rotates the bit by applying force and torque via a single piezoelectric stack actuator without the need for a gearbox or lever mechanism. This can reduce the development/fabrication cost and complexity. In this paper, the drill mechanism will be described and the test results will be reported and discussed.

ultrasonic impacts↗

NASA NTRS2013

Wireline Deep Drill for the Exploration of Icy Bodies

One of the most pressing current questions in space science is whether life has ever arisen anywhere else in the universe. Water is a critical prerequisite for all life-as-we-know-it, thus the possible exploration targets for extraterrestrial life are bodies that have or had copious liquid: Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. Due to the oxidizing nature of Mars' surface, as well as subsurface liquid water reservoirs present on Europa and Enceladus, the search for evidence of existing life must likely focus on subsurface locations, at depths sufficient to support liquid water or retain biologic signatures. To address these questions, an Auto-Gopher sampler has been developed that is a wireline type drill. This drill is suspended on a tether and its motors and mechanisms are built into a tube that ends with a coring bit. The tether provides the mechanical connection to a rover/lander on a surface as well as power and data communication. Upon penetrating to a target depth, the drill is retracted from the borehole, the core is deposited into a sample transfer system, and the drill is lowered back into the hole. Wireline operation sidesteps one of the major drawbacks of traditional continuous drill string systems by obviating the need for multiple drill sections, which add significantly to the mass and the complexity of the system (i.e. penetration rate was 40 cm per hour). Drilling to 2 meter depth and recovering of cores every 10 cm took a total time of 15 hours (a single step of drilling 10 cm and retrieving the core was 45 minutes). Total energy to reach the 2 m depth was 500 Whr. The Weight on Bit was limited to less than 70 Newton. The core recovery was 100%.

sampling↗

NASA NTRS1989

Lunar deep drill apparatus

A self contained, mobile drilling and coring system was designed to operate on the Lunar surface and be controlled remotely from earth. The system uses SKITTER (Spatial Kinematic Inertial Translatory Tripod Extremity Robot) as its foundation and produces Lunar core samples two meters long and fifty millimeters in diameter. The drill bit used for this is composed of 30 per carat diamonds in a sintered tungsten carbide matrix. To drill up to 50 m depths, the bit assembly will be attached to a drill string made from 2 m rods which will be carried in racks on SKITTER. Rotary power for drilling will be supplied by a Curvo-Synchronous motor. SKITTER is to support this system through a hexagonal shaped structure which will contain the drill motor and the power supply. A micro-coring drill will be used to remove a preliminary sample 5 mm in diameter and 20 mm long from the side of the core. This whole system is to be controlled from earth. This is carried out by a continuously monitoring PLC onboard the drill rig. A touch screen control console allows the operator on earth to monitor the progress of the operation and intervene if necessary.

Harvey, Jill↗

NASA NTRS2003

An Automated, Low Mass, Low Power Drill for Acquiring Subsurface Samples of Ground Ice for Astrobiology Studies on Earth and on Mars

As a project that is part of NASA s Astrobiology Technology & Instrument Development Program (ASTID), we are developing a low mass (approx.20kg) drill that will be operated without drilling fluids and at very low power levels (approx.60 watts electrical) to access and retrieve samples from permafrost regions of Earth and Mars. The drill, designed and built as a joint effort by NASA JSC and Baker-Hughes International, takes the form of a down-hole unit attached to a cable so that it can, in principle, be scaled easily to reach significant depths. A parallel laboratory effort is being carried out at UC Berkeley to characterize the physics of dry drilling under martian conditions of pressure, temperature and atmospheric composition. Data from the UCB and JSC laboratory experiments are being used as input to a drill simulation program which is under development to provide autonomous control of the drill. The first Arctic field test of the unit is planned for May 2004. A field expedition to Eureka on Ellesmere Island in Spring 2003 provided an introduction for several team members to the practical aspects of drilling under Arctic conditions. The field effort was organized by Wayne Pollard of McGill University and Christopher McKay of NASA ARC. A conventional science drill provided by New Zealand colleagues was used to recover ground ice cores for analysis of their microbial content and also to develop techniques using tracers to track the depth of penetration of contamination from the core surface into the interior of the samples.

Briggs, G. A.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Self-propelled instrumented deep drilling system

An autonomous subsurface drilling device has spaced-apart forward and rearward feet sections coupled to an axial thruster mechanism between them to operate using an inchworm method of mobility. In one embodiment, forward and rearward drill sections are carried on forward and rearward feet sections for drilling into material in the borehole in both forward and rearward directions, to allow the device to maneuver in any direction underground. In another embodiment, a front drill section has a drill head for cutting into the borehole and conveying cuttings through a center spine tube to an on-board depository for the cuttings. The feet sections of the device employ a foot scroll drive unit to provide radial thrust and synchronous motion to the feet for gripping the borehole wall. The axial thrust mechanism has a tandem set of thrusters in which the second thruster is used to provide the thrust needed for drilling, but not walking. A steering mechanism composed of concentric inner and outer eccentric rings provided with the rearward feet section allow small corrections in both direction and magnitude to the drilling direction as drilling commences.

Myrick, Thomas M.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Auto-Gopher-2 – An Autonomous Wireline Rotary Piezo-Percussive Deep Drilling Mechanism

Drilling deep into the subsurface of planetary bodies in the Solar System for samples acquisition enables critical capabilities for future NASA exploration missions in its quest to understand the origins of the Solar System and potentially the search for life. Such planetary bodies as Mars and Europa are key targets for potential missions that would require reaching great depths. Performing drilling while using minimal mass/volume systems and with low energy consumption are the main requirements that are imposed on such technologies. A wireline deep drill, called Auto-Gopher-2, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL and Honeybee Robotics Ltd. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotary piezo-percussive deep drilling mechanism that combines formation breaking by rotating and piezoelectric actuator hammering and cuttings removal by rotating a fluted bit. The hammering mechanism is based on the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate ball-shape free-mass to transform high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The lessons learned from the previous studies are being implemented into the development of the Auto-Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. Subsystems of the wireline drill are being developed in parallel at JPL and Honeybee Robotics, Ltd. Issues related to the bit and its ability to retain the cuttings for caching and removal are currently being addressed. This paper presents the development efforts of the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.

Bar-Cohen, Yoseph↗

NASA NTRS1974

Rock melting technology and geothermal drilling

National awareness of the potential future shortages in energy resources has heightened interest in exploration and utilization of a variety of geothermal energy (GTE) reservoirs. The status of conventional drilling of GTE wells is reviewed briefly and problem areas which lead to higher drilling costs are identified and R and D directions toward solution are suggested. In the immediate future, an expanded program of drilling in GTE formations can benefit from improvements in drilling equipment and technology normally associated with oil or gas wells. Over a longer time period, the new rock-melting drill bits being developed as a part of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory's Subterrene Program offer new solutions to a number of problems which frequently hamper GTE drilling, including the most basic problem - high temperature. Two of the most favorable characteristics of rock-melting penetrators are their ability to operate effectively in hot rock and produce glass linings around the hole as an integral part of the drilling process. The technical advantages to be gained by use of rock-melting penetrators are discussed in relation to the basic needs for GTE wells.

Rowley, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1980

The reverse laser drilling of transparent materials

Within a limited range of incident laser-beam intensities, laser drilling of a sapphire wafer initiates on the surface of the wafer where the laser beam exits and proceeds upstream in the laser beam to the surface where the laser beam enters the wafer. This reverse laser drilling is the result of the constructive interference between the laser beam and its reflected component on the exit face of the wafer. Constructive interference occurs only at the exit face of the sapphire wafer because the internally reflected laser beam suffers no phase change there. A model describing reverse laser drilling predicts the ranges of incident laser-beam intensity where no drilling, reverse laser drilling, and forward laser drilling can be expected in various materials. The application of reverse laser drilling in fabricating feed-through conductors in silicon-on-sapphire wafers for a massively parallel processer is described.

Anthony, T. R.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Drilling Automation Tests At A Lunar/Mars Analog Site

Future in-situ lunar/martian resource utilization and characterization, as well as the scientific search for life on Mars, will require access to the subsurface and hence drilling. Drilling on Earth is hard - an art form more than an engineering discipline. The limited mass, energy and manpower in planetary drilling situations makes application of terrestrial drilling techniques problematic. The Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) project is developing drilling automation and robotics for projected use in missions to the Moon and Mars in the 2011-15 period. This has been tested recently, drilling in permafrost at a lunar/martian analog site (Haughton Crater, Devon Island, Canada).

Glass, B.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Rotary Percussive Auto-Gopher for Deep Drilling and Sampling

The term "rotary percussive auto-gopher" denotes a proposed addition to a family of apparatuses, based on ultrasonic/ sonic drill corers (USDCs), that have been described in numerous previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. These apparatuses have been designed, variously, for boring into, and/or acquiring samples of, rock or other hard, brittle materials of geological interest. In the case of the rotary percussive autogopher, the emphasis would be on developing an apparatus capable of penetrating to, and acquiring samples at, depths that could otherwise be reached only by use of much longer, heavier, conventional drilling-and-sampling apparatuses. To recapitulate from the prior articles about USDCs: A USDC can be characterized as a lightweight, low-power jackhammer in which a piezoelectrically driven actuator generates ultrasonic vibrations and is coupled to a tool bit through a free mass. The bouncing of the free mass between the actuator horn and the drill bit converts the actuator ultrasonic vibrations into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The combination of ultrasonic and sonic vibrations gives rise to a hammering action (and a resulting chiseling action at the tip of the tool bit) that is more effective for drilling than is the microhammering action of ultrasonic vibrations alone. The hammering and chiseling actions are so effective that the size of the axial force needed to make the tool bit advance into soil, rock, or another material of interest is much smaller than in ordinary rotary drilling, ordinary hammering, or ordinary steady pushing. The predecessor of the rotary percussive auto-gopher is an apparatus, now denoted an ultrasonic/sonic gopher and previously denoted an ultrasonic gopher, described in "Ultrasonic/ Sonic Mechanism for Drilling and Coring" (NPO-30291), NASA Tech Briefs Vol. 27, No. 9 (September 2003), page 65. The ultrasonic/sonic gopher is intended for use mainly in acquiring cores. The name of the apparatus reflects the fact that, like a gopher, it periodically stops advancing at the end of the hole to bring excavated material (in this case, a core sample) to the surface, then re-enters the hole to resume the advance of the end of the hole. By use of a cable suspended from a reel on the surface, the gopher is lifted from the hole to remove a core sample, then lowered into the hole to resume the advance and acquire the next core sample.

Bar-Cohen, Yoseph↗

NASA NTRS2011

Single Piezo-Actuator Rotary-Hammering Drill

This innovation comprises a compact drill that uses low-axial preload, via vibrations, that fractures the rock under the bit kerf, and rotates the bit to remove the powdered cuttings while augmenting the rock fracture via shear forces. The vibrations fluidize the powered cuttings inside the flutes around the bit, reducing the friction with the auger surface. These combined actions reduce the consumed power and the heating of the drilled medium, helping to preserve the pristine content of the produced samples. The drill consists of an actuator that simultaneously impacts and rotates the bit by applying force and torque via a single piezoelectric stack actuator without the need for a gearbox or lever mechanism. This reduces the development/fabrication cost and complexity. The piezoelectric actuator impacts the surface and generates shear forces, fragmenting the drilled medium directly under the bit kerf by exceeding the tensile and/or shear strength of the struck surface. The percussive impact action of the actuator leads to penetration of the medium by producing a zone of finely crushed rock directly underneath the struck location. This fracturing process is highly enhanced by the shear forces from the rotation and twisting action. To remove the formed cuttings, the bit is constructed with an auger on its internal or external surface. One of the problems with pure hammering is that, as the teeth become embedded in the sample, the drilling efficiency drops unless the teeth are moved away from the specific footprint location. By rotating the teeth, they are moved to areas that were not fragmented, and thus the rock fracturing is enhanced via shear forces. The shear motion creates ripping or chiseling action to produce larger fragments to increase the drilling efficiency, and to reduce the required power. The actuator of the drill consists of a piezoelectric stack that vibrates the horn. The stack is compressed by a bolt between the backing and the horn in order to prevent it from being subjected to tensile stress that will cause it to fail. The backing is intended to transfer the generated mechanical vibrations towards the horn. In order to cause rotation, the horn is configured asymmetrically with helical segments and, upon impacting the bit, it introduces longitudinal along the axis of the actuator and tangential force causing twisting action that rotates the bit. The longitudinal component of the vibrations of the stack introduces percussion impulses between the bit and the rock to fracture it when the ultimate strain is exceeded under the bit.

Sherrit, Stewart↗

NASA NTRS2016

Spectral Monitoring of Volatiles During Drilling into Frozen Lunar Simulant

NASA's Resource Prospector (RP) project intends to characterize the 3D distribution of volatiles in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles. One RP remote sensing instrument is a near-infrared spectrometer with an associated camera and radiometer, called the Near-InfraRed Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS). In May 2016, NIRVSS, a Honeybee Robotics drill, and an Inficon mass spectrometer were placed in a vacuum chamber at Glenn Research Center. Also inside was a tube (1.2 m high x 25 cm diameter) filled with lunar simulant NU-LHT-3M, initially doped with a homogeneous water abundance of ~5%, chilled to cryogenic temperatures and exposed to a vacuum (~10e-6 Torr). During drilling, the NIRVSS instruments observed the cuttings pile as subsurface materials were emplaced on the surface. Spectral features associated with water ice, near 2000 and 3000 nm, were measured by the spectrometer during drilling. The spectral data documents development of a desiccated soil layer in the tube down to ~25-30 cm (confirmed by post-test soil analyses), formed during the initial pump down to vacuum. Drilling occurred in 10 cm segments, with the drill stem extracted and flutes brushed after each 10 cm depth. One exception to this was the 40 cm depth segment where the soil was delivered to a sample capture mechanism, and sealed for post-test analyses. To ~30 cm depth the greatest 2000 and 3000 nm signatures were associated with brushing of the drill flutes above the surface. At depths >40 cm the strongest ice signatures were associated with the drill clearing soil from the existing hole, or beginning to encounter new material. For these greater depths, brushing the flutes after extraction produced much weaker ice signatures than for shallower depths. This suggests that the soil may remain trapped in the exit funnel and is not emplaced on the surface. After each event creating strong ice signatures, these signatures decreased to near background levels in 5 minutes or less, due to surface exposure to vacuum.

lunar poles↗

NASA NTRS2022

Remote Diagnosis and Operational Response to an In-Flight Failure of the Drill Feed Mechanism Onboard the Mars Science Laboratory Rover

On November 30th, 2016 (Sol 1536 of the mission), the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) flight operations team commanded the Curiosity rover to drill into a Martian rock to acquire the mission’s 16th rock powder sample. The drilling operation was halted when the drill feed mechanism unexpectedly stalled shortly after disengaging its magnetically-actuated friction brake at the start of a long move to extend the drill bit into contact with the target rock. The drilling campaign was put on hold and later abandoned as diagnostic experimentation revealed a tendency for the actuator to transition in and out of a high-drag state in which the mechanism could not actuate. In the subsequent months, the team conducted a variety of in-flight and ground-based investigations to determine root cause and identify mitigation strategies for continued operation. Mechanism reliability continued to degrade and by June 2017, it became clear that the mechanism could not be relied upon to support drilling operations. The team succeeded in fully extending the feed, enabling the development of new sampling techniques that would not rely on the feed mechanism. The first feed-extended drilling sample was successfully collected on Sol 2057, 521 sols after the initial feed stall. This paper discusses the anomaly investigation process, failure analysis, and feed mechanism operation mitigation strategies. It concludes with key lessons learned about mechanism design, mission architecture, and operational best practices.

Lin, Megan Richardson↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Field Tests With Trident Drill in Bishop Tuff Help Prepare for Future Missions to Moon and Mars

We performed drilling in volcanic deposits near Bishop California using an engineering model of the Honeybee Robotics TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploration of New Terrains) drill [1] a rotary percussive 1-meter class drill that is carried on the PRIME1and VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover)[2] missions that launch in 2024. A similar drilling system was planned for the proposed Icebreaker Discovery class mission to Mars [3] and the Mars Life Explorer mission recommended by the 2020 Decadal Survey of planetary science [4]. The objectives of the project were (1) to use data collected by the drill for operational purposes as a probe of subsurface material properties in formations that are analogous to those that may be encountered on planetary surfaces; (2) correlate subsurface structures with those deduced from Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR); and (3) inspect the boreholes after they were drilled to test PERISCOPE (Probe for Exploring Regolith and Ice by Subsurface Classification of Organics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Elements), a newly developed downhole UV fluorescence spectrometer [5].

Carol R. Stoker↗