SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Sends Engineers to Assist with Thai Cave Rescue Effort

See below for update.

SpaceX pioneer Elon Musk joined in the effort to help rescue the 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand as time appears to be running out for them. Musk has proposed, among other things, using a sort of air-filled bouncy castle to extract the boys from the cave.

The young men, members of a football team, became trapped, along with their coach, in the Tham Luang cave complex nearly two weeks ago when heavy rains began to fill the cave with water. The boys have been in contact with rescue divers who have been able to take them supplies, but one Thai Navy SEAL died on Thursday trying to deliver oxygen to them.

Musk’s involvement began on Twitter, with a fan in Swaziland requesting his help.

Hi sir, if possible can you assist in anyway to get the 12 Thailand boys and their coach out of the cave. @elonmusk

— Mabz (@MabzMagz) July 3, 2018

The next day, Musk responded, and a conversation about strategies for rescuing the boys ensued.

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

— Mabz (@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

The Boring Company is a tunnel construction company founded by Musk in 2016.

James Yenbamroong, the founder of Mu Space Corp, a Thai satellite startup, offered to help coordinate with the Thai government:

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

Musk then began to brainstorm in real time on Twitter:

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

At this point, Musk appeared to be all in.

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

Yenbamroon then began to map out some logistics.

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

Someone going by the Twitter handle “chiefpad” added:

You would need an airlock at both ends

— chiefpad (@chiefpad) July 6, 2018

Asked and answered by Musk:

Have a small velcro slit entrance & exit in circumferential direction (half stress of longitudinal direction)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018

Next came a physicist who works at NASA who shared a diagram showing how it could work:

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

“Ladykayaker” had a practical concern:

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

Yenbamroom with pictures and diagrams:

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

Finally, it was decided that SpaceX and Boring Co. engineers would indeed be heading to Thailand:

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

More on the logistics:

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

The boys are in dire circumstances right now. Rescuers are battling not only the water in the cave, but also an air supply that appears to be dwindling. The boys are not good swimmers, and at this point, they would likely be too weak to walk out of the cave on their own, even if the water levels dropped considerably. Rescuers are watching the sky as monsoon rains in the forcast could further hamper rescue efforts.

Let’s all hope and pray that this has a happy outcome for the boys and their rescuers alike.

Update 9:46 a.m. EST: Six of the boys have now been rescued from the cave. The Daily Mail reports:

Half of the soccer team trapped inside a flooded Thai cave have now been brought out after divers executed a carefully constructed rescue mission.

But divers won’t be rescuing any more children tonight, the Thai Public Broadcast Service announced this evening. It reported: ‘Only six of the boys will be taken out tonight.’

Update 1:09 p.m. EST: Only four of the twelve boys have been rescued, according to the Daily Mail.