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:
Hi sir, if possible can you assist in anyway to get the 12 Thailand boys and their coach out of the cave. @elonmusk
— MabzMagz (@MabzMagz) July 3, 2018
I suspect that the Thai govt has this under control, but I’m happy to help if there is a way to do so
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2018
Thank you @elonmusk. That is really all I ask. that you follow the updates on the situation and perhaps you may come up with something. Some of us can only pray, but you can do more. We know you are not Ironman (…right?). Cheers
— MabzMagz (@MabzMagz) July 4, 2018
Boring Co has advanced ground penetrating radar & is pretty good at digging holes. Don’t know if pump rate is limited by electric power or pumps are too smal. If so, could dropship fully charged Powerpacks and pumps.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2018
SpaceX team reached out to us today to help connect to Thai govt. Our team connected and provided some prep feedback to your team. For pumps, cave has narrowest 70cm cross section and about 5km to 13 guys. For vertical drill, it’s about 1/2 mile down and tricky
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 5, 2018
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
Inflatable tubes & pods being made out of Kevlar for better abrasion resistance. A SpaceX engineer happens to be in Thailand & is headed there now. Could one of the divers DM me? Need approx contour of most difficult sections for tube fab.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Kevlar for abrasion resistance is great. We informed to your SpaceX and Boring team about the jagged edges. Your engineer in thailand will work with geologist to extract the most accurate cave structural map tomorrow, pressure measurement, rain forecast, and etc.
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
You would need an airlock at both ends
— chiefpad (@chiefpad) July 6, 2018
Have a small velcro slit entrance & exit in circumferential direction (half stress of longitudinal direction)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
If you build the exit like this NASA MESH airlock, put zipper along one of the lines, the stress on the zipper is essentially zero. Like a Mylar birthday balloon along one of the wrinkles. I can hook you up with my coworkers working on this at NASA Langley. They have prototypes. pic.twitter.com/1d3PmkOhWO
— Chris (Robotbeat)??? (@Robotbeat) July 6, 2018
So long as air feed rate exceeds leak rate, tube remains inflated. This is how bouncy castles or inflatable mazes work. Needs very little power as the work (physics def of work) done is low. Pumping out water faster than it enters the cave system is prob 10X to 1000X more power.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
It's a 5 hour swim to get there.
— My cats' butler ? (@ladykayaker) July 6, 2018
Walking speed is around 5km/h, but if you’re in an air tube, time doesn’t matter much. If tube diameter was 1.5m, a fast walk of 5km would take 40 mins or so. Just need to duck for the narrow sections.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Not sure the cave diameter is 1.5 meters in all places. Also, flowing water is going to move faster in the narrower spots, making it that much harder to either swim or maintain integrity of your air-tube idea. Tube only needs 1 hole in its length to fail.
— My cats' butler ? (@ladykayaker) July 6, 2018
So long as air pressure in tube higher than water pressure, air will blow out & water won’t come in
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Good idea. Looking into cross sections and lengths of each section. The critical 70cm cross section area has 15m in length. And we believe 2km away from entrance where pumps should be. pic.twitter.com/RxmrBfpFgG
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
This image makes it simple. Critical 70cm area is at the center. Several dives and two rest areas in between before getting to strong 13 Thais. You probably need several inserts if going with air funnel solution pic.twitter.com/1Pz6vd7U4N
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
Looks like 1st bit of water is close enough to entrance to be pumped out. 2nd & 3rd would need battery packs, air pumps & tubes. If depth of 2nd is accurate, would need ~0.5 bar tube pressure. Prob need to enter tube, zip up & then transit.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to govt. There are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Thanks for attempt to help Thais. Your team has been in touch to discuss initial plan and how to get to the complexities part with accurate & useful data soon like turns, elevation, and underwater survey expertise. Our engineers are engaged and ready to facilitate as needed
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
They also consider where water needs to go, it’s like pumping water out from river size on 1st. If battery packs and pumps can be moved in and used on critical 2nd to get that dry, other solution maybe possible. Thanks for sending team to look into this challenge
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
mu Space Corp engineers are working to give initial support SpaceX and Boring engineers in the rescue or help anyway we can in area that we can be useful. Wish all strong 13 Thais safe and happy to see all the collaborative efforts to bring them home !
— James Yenbamroong (@JamesWorldSpace) July 6, 2018
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:
Parts of the path between the 3rd chamber and the kids are super narrow. Waterproof drills?
Plenty of generator trucks up there but battery packs might help. Don't bring solar, it's in a jungle.
— ???? (@thanr) July 6, 2018
Does you know output voltage & amperage of those generator trucks? 3 phase? What frequency? Will need high voltage transformer to carry power over distance or very thick cable. Beyond that, only batteries will work. Will prep Powerwalls in case needed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
All 3-phases
All trucks at 400V. 500kW, 500kW, 120kW, 60 kW, 60 kW
Current load at about 280A per phase.
NYY cables no. 4×35They would like to know your equipments specs, your amperage, cuz the trucks can crank out only 700A per truck, but 400-500A comfortably
— ???? (@thanr) July 6, 2018
50Hz freq
— ???? (@thanr) July 6, 2018
Great, thanks
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Okay the power people are ready for you guys, and would like to coordinate with Boring Co and Tesla through me (I'm translating for ABC News but will hop over until your folks are settled).
How do I get my contact info over?
— ???? (@thanr) July 6, 2018
Thanks man, we'll take it from here
— ???? (@thanr) July 6, 2018
