SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

EdwardHeisler · 2018-07-06 10:33:36

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015138953693880320

louis · 2018-07-06 14:42:59

Musk has suggested deployment of an air tube...

SpaceNut · 2018-07-06 17:22:26

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cave-thail … 018-07-06/

SpaceNut · 2018-07-07 13:06:37

The plight of 12 Thai boys and their coach from the "Wild Boar" football team has transfixed Thailand since they became trapped in a cramped chamber of the Tham Luang cave complex on June 23.

The risks were underlined by the death on Friday of a former Thai Navy SEAL diver, who ran out of oxygen while returning from the chamber where the boys are trapped.

Conditions 'perfect' for evacuation of Thai boys in cave

More than 100 exploratory holes have been bored -- some shallow, but the longest 400 metres deep -- into the mountainside in an attempt to open a second evacuation route and avoid forcing the boys into a dangerous dive through submerged tunnels.
"Now and in the next three or four days, the conditions are perfect (for evacuation) in terms of the water, the weather and the boys' health," Narongsak Osottanakorn the chief of the rescue operation told reporters.
Rescuers have fed a kilometres-long air pipe into the cave to restore oxygen levels in the chamber where the team are sheltering, accompanied by medics and expert divers.
"When we're in a confined space if the oxygen drops to 12 percent the human body starts to slow down and people can fall unconscious," Narongsak said.
"There's also carbon dioxide. If the oxygen levels are down and the carbon dioxide levels are up, then you can get too much carbon dioxide in your blood."
Heavy rains could make the water rise to the shelf where the children are sitting, reducing the area to "less than 10 square meters," he added, citing estimates from cave divers and experts.

SpaceNut · 2018-07-07 15:26:59

Thai officials launched a massive search and rescue operation involving more than 1,000 people, including specialists drafted from various nations such as Australia, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Persistent rain initially impeded efforts to locate the group. But on July 2, two British divers found all 13 alive in an area about three miles from the cave’s main entrance.

The death of a former member of the Royal Thai Navy volunteering for the rescue effort has hindered some progress. Saman Gunan lost consciousness underwater during an overnight operation delivering extra air tanks along a treacherous route divers take to get to the trapped soccer team. He could not be revived and was confirmed dead early Friday morning.

The first phase of the proposed operation involves an ongoing process of staging equipment and clearing obstacles in the cave.

Among the proposed solutions is what officials have dubbed a “buddy dive.” It requires each of the players to be paired with an experienced diver as they navigate their way through twisted, water-filled passageways to the exit. “They’re really going to have to trust their diver for those five or six hours.”

The soccer team, made up of boys between the ages of 11 and 16, and their coach have already received some diving instruction, but experts and rescuers have expressed concern about their ability to learn the skills they would need to complete the 1.5-mile trek to the exit.

Officials initially considered allowing the boys to remain in the tunnel network until monsoon season concluded in November, but a plummet in oxygen levels has made that impossible. According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the “optimal range” of oxygen needed in the air for a person to breath and maintain normal function is between 19.5% and 23.5%

SpaceNut · 2018-07-07 16:55:24

The 4 risky options to rescue the Thai boys trapped in a cave.
1) Teaching the boys to swim (and dive) out with a buddy
2) Drilling into the cave
3) Pumping out the water
4) Waiting out the monsoon

SpaceX and Boring Company CEO Elon Musk has said he has sent engineers to help with the effort, tweeting that they were working on an “escape pod design” and an “inflatable tube with airlocks.”

Saturday, an air pipe had been run all the way from the rescue base inside the cave to the chamber where the boys and the coach are waiting to be rescued, about 2.5 miles from the cave’s mouth.

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#1 2018-07-06 10:33:36

SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

#2 2018-07-06 14:42:59

Re: SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

#3 2018-07-06 17:22:26

Re: SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

#4 2018-07-07 13:06:37

Re: SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

#5 2018-07-07 15:26:59

Re: SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

#6 2018-07-07 16:55:24

Re: SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand to help rescue effort

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