Billionaire techie Elon Musk is sending a team of engineers from SpaceX and the Boring Company to help with the increasingly desperate effort to rescue a dozen boys and their soccer coach from a waterlogged cave in Thailand.
The soccer team became trapped in the Tham Luang cave complex nearly two weeks ago when floods from a sudden downpour hemmed them in. Divers were able to reach the boys on Monday, perched on a rock slab above the water level. But on Thursday, one of the volunteer rescuers died during an hours-long dive to deliver oxygen to the group.
One of Musk’s fans tweeted out a plea this week for Musk to pitch in. Musk agreed to put on his thinking cap, and eventually to do more than think about it. James Yenbamroong, the founder of Thailand’s mu Space satellite startup, facilitated contacts with the Thai government.
Here’s how it all went down on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MabzMagz/status/1014251869760249856
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1014509856777293825
https://twitter.com/MabzMagz/status/1014616689386885120
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1014754638950645760
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1014862174299279361
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015307876829548544
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015313124788879360
https://twitter.com/chiefpad/status/1015110059381088256
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015115481097777152
https://twitter.com/Robotbeat/status/1015221559940788225
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015116567477014528
https://twitter.com/ladykayaker/status/1015105777076350978
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015108458067124225
https://twitter.com/ladykayaker/status/1015109523328020480
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015286165383987200
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015126489904267264
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015131772743368704
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015137456901931008
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015138953693880320
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015206938299121664
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015211297929981952
https://twitter.com/JamesWorldSpace/status/1015320730530037761
Musk’s “bouncy castle” rescue tube is just one of the ideas in the mix. Others include trying to drill a hole into the cave chamber from above; clearing away rock debris from what may be a back entrance to the chamber; and teaching the soccer team how to scuba-dive.
NASA Watch passed along yet another suggestion from Homer Hickam, the former NASA engineer who wrote the book “October Sky.” Hickam said the divers could deliver people-sized rescue balls modeled after NASA’s Personal Rescue Enclosures, or PREs. The trapped teammates would be sealed within the watertight balls, one at a time, and pulled through the cave tunnel to safety.
“It would be great if someone knowledgeable of the PRE at NASA (probably at JSC) could dust one of these things off and see if our agency could help this rather desperate situation, if not with the PRE, then other rescue devices we may have on hand or quickly fabricated,” Hickam wrote.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but not dangerously desperate. The bouncy castle and the rescue balls pose huge risks, particularly if there’s little time for testing.
It may well turn out that the best solution is the judicious use of tried-and-true debris removal techniques. But at the very least, the suggestions show that some of the world’s most innovative minds — and the internet’s hive mind — are on the case.
Update for 1:40 p.m. PT July 6: The planning continues via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/thanr/status/1015165961077325831
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015276185293426688
https://twitter.com/thanr/status/1015298882304073728
https://twitter.com/thanr/status/1015299406612971520
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015310752830218241
https://twitter.com/thanr/status/1015302189118455808
https://twitter.com/thanr/status/1015311670275502080