Elon Musk is sending engineers from two of his companies to Thailand to assist in the rescue of a boys’ soccer team trapped in a cave.
Musk, the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, said on Twitter that engineers from his space exploration company SpaceX and tunneling firm The Boring Company would travel to Thailand on Saturday.
Technicians could pump water through the cave and provide Tesla-made “Powerpack” battery packs to provide electricity to boost the pump rate, Musk said earlier this week.
Musk also raised the possibility of a nylon tube being inserted into the cave to inflate it with air "like a bouncy castle."
A team of rescuers discovered the 12 boys and their soccer coach in the flooded Tham Luang cave system in Chiang Rai on Monday. It is feared that the 13 could remain stuck in the cave for months due to expected heavy rainfall contributing to further flooding.
An ex-Thai navy diver died while taking part in the rescue mission, it emerged Friday, after losing consciousness in one of the cave’s passageways when his oxygen tank ran out.
Musk ‘happy to help’
Musk expressed his intention to support the Thai government earlier this week, saying he was “happy to help if there is a way to do so.”
The Tesla chief executive suggested ways of helping the rescue efforts, involving the use of his companies’ technology to pinpoint the exact location of the boys and pump out water to reach them.
“Boring Co has advanced ground penetrating radar and is pretty good at digging holes,” Musk said on Twitter. “Don’t know if pump rate is limited by electric power or pumps are too small. If so, could dropship fully charged Powerpacks and pumps.”
Musk himself has been surrounded by heightened media attention over Tesla production and cash-burn worries and his leadership of the company.
Tesla reached its of 5,000 cars-a-week last Sunday, although concerns have been raised as to possible shortcuts taken to achieve that target.
The entrepreneur was heavily criticized by analysts for his handling of a conference call in May following the company’s first-quarter earnings report, in which called questions from analysts “boring.”
Musk has also attacked the media for reporting what he views as false and misleading reports, and on Thursday from Business Insider, Reuters and CNBC.