To Elon Musk’s resumé of electric car pioneer, solar energy advocate, Hyperloop dreamer and space traveler, add wannabe rescuer of young boys trapped in Thai cave.
The Tesla Inc. TSLA, -0.55%[1] chief executive said in a series of tweets Thursday that he is sending engineers from two of his companies to Thailand to assist with the effort to bring out the 12 members of a Thai soccer team and their coach from a flooded cave[2] that has kept them underground for about two weeks.
The boys, who range in age from 11 to 16, were found alive on Monday after going missing in a flooded network of caves. The rescue effort is being hampered by high water levels that are not expected to subside for weeks and their inability to swim.
Read also: Thailand cave rescue: Volunteer diver dies during operation[3]
Musk said his Boring Co., whose main mission is to dig tunnels for futuristic transport systems[4], and SpaceX, his space exploration company, will send engineers to Thailand on Saturday. The rescue effort can use these companies’ battery packs, air pumps and tubes, Musk said, and speculated that a nylon tube could be inserted into the cave and then inflated with air, “like a bouncy castle.”
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)
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)
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)
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)