Copiapo:
A 31-ton drill is boring a "pilot" hole from the floor of Chile's Atacama Desert down 2,200 feet (700 metres) to the area in the San Jose mine where 33 men await rescue.
Hours after the drill bit into the ground, an engineer at the site predicted slow, but steady progress.
"We are hoping to have made about 15 metres and after that we can use the directional bar and speed up the process," said Jorge Sanhueza.
After weeks of boring that hole, the drill must then be fitted with a larger bit to carve out a rescue chimney that will be about 26 inches (66 centimetres) wide - a task that means guiding the drill through solid rock while keeping the drill rod from snapping or getting bogged down as it nears its target.
Finally, the men must be brought up one at a time inside a specially built cage, a trip that will take three hours each.
Just hauling the men up will itself - if there are no problems - take more than four days.
In Santiago, Health Minister Jaime Manalich and a team of NASA experts discussed the situation.
NASA in the US is offering technical support to help the men cope with the extreme isolation.
"Our astronauts are actually isolated for these long periods of time but of course the ability for communication and resupply of food and that sort of thing makes it a bit of a different environment for them," said NASA Deputy Chief Doctor Michael Duncan.
Early on, Manalich said at least five of the men showed signs of depression.
But spirits have improved with a supply of water, food, special clothes to keep them dry in damp conditions and the first verbal communication with loved ones this week.
Doctors at the mine site report the men's health is improving.
The men were trapped Aug. 5 when a landslide blocked the shaft down into the San Jose copper and gold mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert.
Last year, three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China, and the Chileans surpassed that mark on Tuesday.
Hours after the drill bit into the ground, an engineer at the site predicted slow, but steady progress.
"We are hoping to have made about 15 metres and after that we can use the directional bar and speed up the process," said Jorge Sanhueza.
After weeks of boring that hole, the drill must then be fitted with a larger bit to carve out a rescue chimney that will be about 26 inches (66 centimetres) wide - a task that means guiding the drill through solid rock while keeping the drill rod from snapping or getting bogged down as it nears its target.
Finally, the men must be brought up one at a time inside a specially built cage, a trip that will take three hours each.
Just hauling the men up will itself - if there are no problems - take more than four days.
In Santiago, Health Minister Jaime Manalich and a team of NASA experts discussed the situation.
NASA in the US is offering technical support to help the men cope with the extreme isolation.
"Our astronauts are actually isolated for these long periods of time but of course the ability for communication and resupply of food and that sort of thing makes it a bit of a different environment for them," said NASA Deputy Chief Doctor Michael Duncan.
Early on, Manalich said at least five of the men showed signs of depression.
But spirits have improved with a supply of water, food, special clothes to keep them dry in damp conditions and the first verbal communication with loved ones this week.
Doctors at the mine site report the men's health is improving.
The men were trapped Aug. 5 when a landslide blocked the shaft down into the San Jose copper and gold mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert.
Last year, three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China, and the Chileans surpassed that mark on Tuesday.
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