Development and prospect of drilling and mechanized excavation of rock under complex deep underground/sea/space conditions

The large-scale exploitation of underground resources has gradually reduced the shallow resources, making deep underground, deep sea and deep space("three depths") become the new territory of resource exploitation. The development status of rock drilling and mechanical excavation in the complex environment of "three depths" were described, the related characteristics of rock drilling and excavation processes from the perspective of different complex environments such as high ground stress, high ground temperature, high permeation pressure, high water pressure, microgravity and high vacuum were analyzed, and several representative technical challenges were put forward. In view of the technical bottlenecks and challenges of drilling and excavation in deep ground, deep sea and deep space, some solutions were summarized, and the future development direction of drilling and excavation technology were prospected. The results show that deep space drilling and excavation technology is still in the preliminary development stage, and the excavation technology does not meet the technical requirements of deep space resources exploitation at present. However, drilling operations have developed steadily in recent years, and reasonable ideas for deep space mechanized excavation are also put forward. Drilling and excavation technologies are an important technical component of "three depths" resources mining. In order to realize the safe, efficient, economical and green development of mineral resources in the complex environment of "three depths", the technology of rock drilling and mechanized excavation needs to be developed in the direction of digitalization, automation, self-service and intelligence. © 2023 Central South University of Technology. All rights reserved.