"Once we confirm what exactly will be helpful to send or do, we will. We are getting feedback and guidance from the people on the ground in Chiang Rai to determine the best way for us to assist their efforts."<doc-sep>Update, July 8, 1:04 p.m.: Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday morning that, because of rescue operations already underway, his team never actually made it onto a plane to Thailand due to the timing of the flights. Musk added that engineers will continue testing their cave rescue designs in Los Angeles in case there’s ever a need in the future. For updates on the rescue efforts, follow the Slatest coverage here. Original post below: On Friday, a group of engineers from SpaceX and the Boring Company headed to Thailand to aid efforts to rescue a group of boys and one adult trapped in a cave, as the companies’ CEO Elon Musk had announced Thursday on Twitter. There are 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, members of the same soccer team, who are stuck in a chamber of Thailand’s Tham Luang cave complex with their 25-year-old coach. They’ve been trapped there since June 23 after a rainstorm caused severe flooding and blocked their exit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thai Navy SEALs and teams of Thai and international divers has been working to supply food and oxygen to those stuck in the cave while a massive rescue operation is underway, with military and civilian experts working around the clock to try to save the boys. About 1,000 people are involved with the rescue operation, according to the BBC. One former Thai SEAL died on Thursday from asphyxiation as he was attempting to deliver oxygen to the boys. To add to the difficulties, many of the boys don’t know how to swim, and the journey out of the cave, much of it underwater, takes nearly six hours. Rescue workers have been giving the group a crash course on swimming and how to use scuba gear before monsoon-level rains are expected to fall on the region in only a few days. Advertisement But Musk, the Tesla and Space X CEO who recently started a tunnel-building company called the Boring Company, said on Thursday that the “Boring Co has advanced ground penetrating radar & is pretty good at digging holes.” Though he noted that he “suspect[s] that the Thai govt has this under control,” he is happy to use to help if he can. “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,” Musk later added on Friday. Discussing the plan on Twitter with James Yenbamroong, founder of Thailand-based satellite start-up muSpaceTech, Musk described the possibility of providing the Thai rescue operation with an air-filled escape tube, as well as water pumps and battery packs, which could be used to help to keep the pumps active. The experts on the ground have so far had a difficult time keeping the water levels in the cave chambers low. Advertisement 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 On Saturday morning, he tweeted that he was “iterating” with cave experts in Thailand on “an escape pod design that might be safe enough to try. Also building an inflatable tube with airlocks.” Later Saturday, he suggested that some Space X hardware could be used as part of an escape vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement 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 Got more great feedback from Thailand. Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull. Light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2018 Advertisement "With all due respect to Mr. Musk, I am not sure that he or his engineers have a real good handle on exactly what they’re dealing with in this particular situation." Will any of this work? The Thai government confirmed Saturday on Facebook that it was anticipating the Space X/Boring Company team, which may “provide services for location tracking, water pumping or battery power” to the current operation. (Obviously, Tesla has plenty of expertise in batteries.) But considering the tremendous amount of manpower and expertise already being thrown at the rescue operation, several cave-rescue experts I spoke to were skeptical that Musk’s team would necessarily be of much use to the already-exhaustive efforts. “It doesn’t matter how much equipment you throw at it or how many dollars you throw at it, you may be reaching the limits of the technology in this particular situation,” Anmar Mirza , a caver and cave rescuer who is a coordinator with the National Cave Rescue Commission, the cave rescue arm of the National Speleological Society, which is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the study, conservation, and exploration of caving. Advertisement “With all due respect to Mr. Musk, I am not sure that he or his engineers have a real good handle on exactly what they’re dealing with in this particular situation,” said Mirza, commenting on the rescue-operation brainstorm Musk was conducted over the last two days on Twitter. “The teams working are already doing as much pumping as can feasibly be done in there. They have enough pumping power.” Advertisement Advertisement Though the Thai government didn’t mention whether Musk’s team would be drilling any holes, Mirza stressed that such an effort wouldn’t really be viable for such a time-sensitive mission. A cave rescue in Chile in 2010 took months, and even with the most advanced technology, boring machines don’t work that quickly. “You have to have a high enough survey to know what you’re boring into, and you have to know where on the surface corresponds to a point in the cave. You’re trying to find a needle in the hay stack, and even then, you have to dig hundreds of meters,” Mirza said. Advertisement After looking at the ideas Musk shared on Twitter, Rick Speaect, the director of the National Speleological Society and a National Cave Rescue Commission instructor, told me that the at least some of ideas Musk was throwing around didn’t feel well thought out. “He talks about pumping out the flooded entrance, but the problem I see here is that he’s thinking about stagnant water conditions and not all of what he’s talking about will work for moving water,” said Speaect. “And so, with this case you have a constriction that’s 70 cm wide and you have moving water through there, so any kind of tube that you can put through in that small of area, you’re going to be building up a dam behind it for the length of time it takes someone to get through there, because that flowing water is not going to stop,” said Speaect. Advertisement Advertisement Speaect, who is an expert in cave rescue but not underwater cave rescue, noted that it’s always a good idea to propose things, and Mirza added that he has a great deal of respect for Musk. But both stressed that this operation is incredibly complex. We don’t know if any of the ideas Musk has proposed—either in his public brainstorm or in conversations with Thai authorities—will work, enhance the ongoing efforts, or distract from them. It’s probably true that Musk’s attention to the issue on Twitter has helped raise awareness of the situation, even if the most obvious response to his tweets has been an bevy of armchair engineers in his mentions pondering even more involved ways to pull off the rescue. Hopefully the Thai authorities will be able to benefit in some way from the extra assistance. But whatever happens, it’s still not clear that Musk’s contributions will make the rescue any less of a long shot.<doc-sep>Elon Musk has offered his boring expertise to help rescue a party of schoolboys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand -- and he thinks his inflatable tubes might do the trick. Twelve boys and their football team coach were visiting the Tham Luang cave system in Northern Thailand when they were stranded by floodwaters 10 days ago. More heavy rain is expected to flood the caves further, and sections of the passages out are too narrow to pass through wearing scuba tanks. Former navy diver Saman Gunan died after delivering oxygen to the children on Thursday, demonstrating how dangerous the escape from the caves would be. 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 Employees of the SpaceX and Boring companies founded by Musk are on their way to Thailand to offer assistance. The Boring Company was set up to drill traffic tunnels, and could employ ground-penetrating radar or air pumps. Tesla founder Musk has also suggested running an inflatable tunnel through the irregular passageways of the cave that could form a walkway to safety. Update, 12:54 p.m. PT: Musk says he can build inflatable Kevlar tubes to help rescue the kids, and is attempting to contact divers to figure out the proper dimensions: 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 Now playing: Watch this: Thai cave rescue: Elon Musk sends tiny submarine CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition. CNET en Español: Get all your tech news and reviews in Spanish.<doc-sep>
Elon Musk is sending a team of engineers to Thailand to see if they can help authorities racing to save a dozen boys and their coach who are stranded in a cave there. "SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to govt," Musk tweeted just after midnight, California time, on Thursday night. "There are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person." "Boring Co has advanced ground penetrating radar & is pretty good at digging holes," Musk wrote in an earlier tweet on Thursday. The boys, aged 11 to 16, are members of a local soccer team who were on a field trip with a coach. Heavy rains stranded them in the cave two weeks ago. Their disappearance sparked a massive search-and-rescue operation that managed to locate the group nine days after their disappearance. But this discovery didn't mean the boys were out of danger. Continued rains could flood the part of the cave where they're stranded. And even if that doesn't happen, it could be months before the water drops enough for the boys to walk out. In their current situation, keeping the boys supplied with food and medical care is hazardous—one Thai navy diver has died ferrying oxygen tanks into the cave. Another option would be to give the boys scuba gear and have them swim out. But some of the boys can't swim, and the narrow, winding cave and long distances—around 5km—is a big challenge for even the most experienced divers. Musk spent Thursday evening brainstorming about ways to help the boys and suggested another approach: 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 Musk was responding to a tweet by James Yenbamroong, an American-educated aerospace engineer who moved back to his native Thailand to start a satellite startup called mu Space Corp. He provided this image to illustrate the boys' predicament: "The critical 70cm cross section area has 15m in length," Yenbamroong tweeted, noting that this section is "2km away from entrance where pumps should be." Musk elaborated on his plan in subsequent tweets: 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 Have a small velcro slit entrance & exit in circumferential direction (half stress of longitudinal direction) — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 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 Correction: I misidentified the nationality of the diver who died helping the boys. He was Thai.