The LWD tools that he is referring to are very expensive tools to survive the drilling environment.
Yes, they record data but their telemetry uphole in real time is very limited and even the downloaded data only gives an idea (although pretty good) of what is down there
There is a limited number of these tools available though all the service companies and by no means are they run every time on all wells.
The other thing is that the interpretation of these well logs is up to the experience and judgement of the person involved with the interpretation.
Some of the interpretation is obvious for some zones but there is a lot of well logs where the interpretation is not very clear cut.
A prime example is this shale gas. By the normal well log interpretation, the shale gas is not an obvious gas zone as the shale being present masks some of the signatures of hydrocarbon.
I could go on and on about this and even given 10 experts looking at the same log, they would each have a different idea of what is down there.
So to dumb it down to my level – NASA might be wise to send an experienced drilling engineer with a bunch of letters after their name (and maybe another one as a backup) to monitor the data coming out of the apparatus, but in terms of actually operating the equipment it would probably be best to just train the astronauts on how to do that. Would that be a fair assessment?
Again, the more difficult part would be to get the drilling rig there and being on a asteroid, it would have to be an air drilled hole as opposed to a fluid based hole.
Of course, in a air based hole, these LWD measuring tools do NOT work very well for transmitting through the air.
I don’t know who well the EMT would work in this case. Maybe, maybe not
Believe it or not, it would then come down to the feel of drilling process. I can’t say it better than that. But when drilling there is torque and weight on the bit and an experienced driller gets a feel for how the drilling is going just based on that.
The part where Bruce Willis says that it doesn’t feel right when drilling actually has some truth to it
The one with the offshore rig is very high tech one that is used in the North Sea and other highly expensive locations off shore. However, that rig is the exception to the rule as opposed to the number of smaller older manual rigs that still most of the drilling work.
On those rigs, it is much less automated and the old turning of the bit is with the manual put together of the drill pipe is still the case.
Hey every one new to the forum. It might be a little late of a reply, but I felt I had to point some things out. I have never worked on on a off shore or on land rig that drills for oil or natural gas. How ever i have work on the Horizontal Drill rigs that install the the underground utility’s. The only comment i did not agree with is [ The machine shown on Armageddon ( Bruce’s super drilling device that NASA couldn’t get to work) was basically a machine used for river crossing, trench drilling stuff, getting cables and pipes under roads rail and rivers.
They are not complicated things.] this comment especially.
Ive worked on these rig for over 8 years many sizes an company’s. The first Horizontal drilling rigs also work of of cables and winch system derived form the ideas form down hole rigs and over the years it was found that a rack in pinion system was more suited to our needs. Basically what Im getting at is its not a walk in the park as you have stated. The rig I work on and run requires 11 semi truck loads to set completely, once set up and the pilot hole is started the drill operator also has a lot he has to look out for. Similar to what you described. The driller must steer the drill head from start to finish, look at fluid return and loss, soil and formation and adjust drilling fluid and drill pattern, look out for crew and their safety [very important] .These rigs although not as large as what you might be used to are still very powerful ,enough to bend and snap 5 1/5 double shoulder pipe. this pipe is rated at over 900,000 ft lbs of pull but when pushing forward it starts to snake and bow around and if the formation is changing from soft to firm you must be on your toes or some one not paying attention could get hurt or worse. Maybe every one here might think we all do what you see on the side of the road a tiny rig installing small conduit and little steel pipe, but its not all the same. Some hdd drills have reached over 15,000 feet and pipe diameters over 54 inches from all corners of the world. The machine in the film is a contraption that look nothing like what we have , not even close. So if you compare it to what we do its not really fair to us when you say it no big deal we to have a lot we have to look out for as well, maintaining a good hole, running a crew, keeping equipment running in good order, having an organized location, making sure we don’t run into existing lines, and so on. So no astronauts could not be trained to be drillers on an hdd rig over a couple of days their are to many variables that must be learned over years that cant be seen and in days. Sorry its so long but i tried to make it as short as I could, our work might not be as complex as yours but its not entirely the same not all crossings are successful some times drill string and product pipes don’t make it to the other side. So please don’t belittle our work.