Over the past few days, the most notable story worldwide has been the boys football team trapped in a Thai cave along with their coach. At the time of writing, four kids have been rescued, but eight still remain along with their coach.
Aiming to step and assist is Elon Musk who recently tweeted out that some of his SpaceX team are working on a solution that involves the use of a kid-sized submarine.
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
The newly fabricated vessel uses some parts from Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket – its liquid oxygen transfer tube in particular. The SpaceX founder has also been answering questions and sharing videos on the progress they have been making on Twitter, but it’s unknown whether this solution will be ready in time to assist in Thailand.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016029967270928384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1016029967270928384&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2018%2F7%2F7%2F17544452%2Felon-musk-spacex-thailand-cave-soccer-team-kid-sized-submarine-rescue
It’s unclear how many of the kids will be able to be rescued wearing scuba diving equipment, especially as none of them have the expertise to do so. Added to this, is the potential trauma forcing the children to undertake such a task could do, along with the fact that they’ve already had a harrowing past couple of weeks.
Perhaps then Musk’s solution is the best at the moment, although given the tight confines of the kid-sized submarine, claustrophobia is definitely a concern.
This is a developing story, so we’ll keep you updated as more information is incoming.