Elon Musk defends mini-plan for Thai cave



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MAE SAI, Thailand – As rescuers struggle to save 12 boys and their coach trapped in a cave in northern Thailand, technology billionaire Elon Musk has devised a kid-sized submarine. It turned out that they did not need it.

So he left it there, "in case it could be useful in the future," he said on Twitter.

Tuesday, the rescue operation had managed to rescue 13 people trapped in the cave of Tham Luang. Earlier this week, eight of the football teammates were evacuated from the flooded cave, a mission that required guiding the boys through passages filled with water.

It was a daunting task. On Friday, an old Thai marine SEAL lost consciousness and died putting air cartridges on a road inside the cave.

The last four boys, their football coach and military personnel were evacuated on Tuesday. said in a Facebook post that the mission was over. It took 18 days, dozens of divers and hundreds of volunteers, but the invention of Mr. Musk's mini-submarine was left out, said a Thai official

. Musk himself was on the scene. He wrote in a tweet early Tuesday morning, local time, that he had just returned from a large cave in the Tham Luang cave complex where he had deposited the quickly assembled submarine. "It's made of rocket parts," he said. "Leave here in case it could be useful in the future."

On Tuesday, the head of the search operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, until recently the provincial governor, rejected the idea that the bespoke submersible Mr. Musk was suitable for. ;extraction.

"I assure you that the equipment that he brought to help us is not practical for our mission," Narongsak said. "Even though the equipment is on the cutting edge of technology, it does not fit our mission in the cave."

During the weekend, Mr. Musk sent 10 engineers from his companies to help relief in Thailand. They sent engineers from Tesla, Mr. Musk's electric vehicle company; SpaceX, its rocket company; and the boring company, specializing in tunneling and construction, said Saturday a boring company spokesman

. Musk had meditated on Twitter that they could build a "little kid-sized submarine" with part of a Falcon rocket, produced by SpaceX. He said that a transfer tube, which helps move liquid oxygen to fuel the rocket engine, could serve as a cashier to the submarine.

Musk's representatives did not make it available for comment, but a spokesman for SpaceX said the mission's divers had signed the effort. "19659002" Several divers involved in the rescue said the mini-sub-project was viable. "The company did not immediately respond to a follow-up question as to whether it planned to remove the abandoned submarine from the cave area.

In his tweets in the middle of the rescue, Mr. Musk presented his own evidence that the team leaders had welcomed his help.He said of Mr. Narongsak: "The former governor of the Thai province (improperly described as" chief of rescue ") is not the expert on the subject. "

He said that the expert was Richard Stanton The first two British divers joined the football team , and Mr. Musk shared an email in which Mr. Stanton had asked him to "continue working on the details of the capsule."

But a spokesman for Mr. Stanton said Tuesday that the cave s & # Proved to be too narrow for the mini-submarine

Shortly after the rescue of the cave, it is It became clear that Mr Musk would send many more employees to Asia in the coming year. Tuesday, Tesla announced an agreement with the Chinese authorities to build a battery and automobile factory in Shanghai, its first factory outside the United States

Muktita Suhartono reports from Mae Sai, Thailand, and Julia Jacobs from New York. [ad_2]
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