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Trude, the world´s largest tunnel boring machines (TBMs) with a diameter of 14.2m, excavated the 4th pipe Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg, Germany. It took two years and five months to drill the 2,561 metres underground tunnel.
The German tunnelling company, Herrenknecht AG, responsible for this achievement is now applying a new technique with space origin in order to be able to drill tunnels even better. The German company Astro- und Feinwerktechnik Adlershof GmbH has produced a new transmitter for Herrenknecht AG based upon their know-how gained from their work for ESA on the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.
A number of these transmitters are now mounted on a TBM and provides a look into the ground in front of the TDB. Every second the transmitters send sound waves into the ground, microphones receive the reflecting signals which are data processed and visualizes important geologic changes up to 40 m in front of the rotary shear blade.