Elon Musk ramps up efforts to help save boys trapped in Thailand cave

Thailand said two members of the engineering team dispatched by billionaire Elon Musk are due to arrive late Saturday to help with efforts to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave.

Another engineer was already in the country on holiday and six more are expected to land Sunday, Weerachon Sukhontapatipak, a spokesman for Thailand’s military government, said in a Saturday briefing in Bangkok. They may provide help such as trying to drill a tunnel to save the group, he said.

The boys and their coach have been trapped in the cave system in the country’s north for about two weeks, and heavy rainfall looms in the days ahead. Rescuers are scrambling to lower water levels with pumps and prepare the group for a perilous, hours-long extraction that would include diving through the pitch-black water with scuba gear.

Musk, who studied physics, has floated ideas on Twitter

Some good feedback from cave experts in Thailand. Iterating with them on an escape pod design that might be safe enough to try. Also building an inflatable tube with airlocks. Less likely to work, given tricky contours, but great if it does.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2018

Diving Risk

“No need for SCUBA mouthpiece or regulator,” Musk wrote about his suggested pods. “Training unnecessary & less susceptible to panic attack.” Musk said they were being tested Friday afternoon in a pool with a subject who had never been scuba diving.

Maybe worth trying: insert a 1m diameter nylon tube (or shorter set of tubes for most difficult sections) through cave network & inflate with air like a bouncy castle. Should create an air tunnel underwater against cave roof & auto-conform to odd shapes like the 70cm hole.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018

Also read: Boys trapped in Thai cave write letters telling families ‘don’t worry’

Any air sock or tube would have to be tough enough to withstand high water pressure — potentially two tons of force at a depth of 15 feet– and sharp rocks, said Douglas Hart, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On Saturday, Musk said on Twitter there’s “some good feedback from cave experts in Thailand” and that he’s “iterating with them on an escape pod design that might be safe enough to try.”
“Also building an inflatable tube with airlocks,” he wrote. “Less likely to work, given tricky contours, but great if it does.”

Officials have also contemplated supplying the boys and their coach with food, water and oxygen to stay in the cave potentially for months until the monsoon ends and waters recede. But the expected heavy rains raise the risk of increased flooding and restricted access.

A spokesman for Musk has previously said that the billionaire’s companies may assist by trying to pinpoint the boys’ precise location using Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or Boring Co. technology, pumping water or providing heavy-duty battery packs known as Tesla Inc. Powerwalls.