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Agence France-Presse

American space entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted that he was in Thailand on Tuesday with a prototype mini-sub, at the flooded cave where five members of a youth football team remained trapped.
“Just returned from Cave 3,” Musk said.
“Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team. Leaving here in case it may be useful in the future.”
On Instagram, he published video of a flooded cave, with rescuers.
Cave Three is about 2km from the entrance of the cave network and is the base for Thai rescuers.

Just returned from Cave 3. Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team. Leaving here in case it may be useful in the future. Thailand is so beautiful. pic.twitter.com/EHNh8ydaTT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2018

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>


The footballers still awaiting rescue are about 2km further in, at a point very difficult to access.
There is no indication so far that Thai rescuers plan to use Musk’s prototype.
Divers pull four more boys from flooded Thai cave, taking total to eight
By Monday night, elite divers had managed to bring out eight members of the football team which included 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach.
The Thai rescue effort has been assisted by experts from around the world, and the death of a former Thai Navy Seal diver who ran out of oxygen in the cave on Friday underscored the dangers of the mission.

pic.twitter.com/D1umiFDr1t
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>

After garnering headlines with initial ideas of installing a giant air tube inside the cave complex and using his firm’s penetrating radar to dig holes to reach the boys, Musk offered his idea for the mini-sub.
He called it “basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of (a) Falcon rocket as hull.”
Musk said it was light enough to be carried by two divers, robust, and small enough to get through narrow gaps.
The person inside need not swim or know how to use oxygen bottles.
He posted video of divers escorting the pod during testing in a Los Angeles swimming pool.
Last week, Musk said he was sending teams to Thailand from his private space exploration firm, SpaceX, and engineering firm, Boring Co which is developing tunnelling systems for transport projects.

Simulating maneuvering through a narrow passage pic.twitter.com/2z01Ut3vxJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2018

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>

While offering the mini-submarine as a potential saviour, Musk used the opportunity to promote space exploration. He is also co-founder of the Tesla electric car company.
The Thai soccer team ventured into the Tham Luang cave complex after practice and became trapped by rising waters more than a fortnight ago.

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Thailand

Elon Musk visits Thai cave where boys are trapped, delivers kid-size submarine – just in case

The Wild Boar mini-submarine is tested in a swimming pool in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 19, 2017, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, speaks during the International Space Station Research and Development Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. American space entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted that he was in Thailand on Tuesday July 8, 2018, with a prototype mini-sub, at the flooded cave where five members of a youth football team remained trapped. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski

How a 25-year-old ex-monk kept the Thai cave boys alive – and won the hearts of their parents

In this July 3, 2018, image taken from video provided by the Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page, Thai boy smiles as Thai Navy Seal medic help injured children inside a cave in Mae Sai, northern Thailand. The Thai soccer teammates stranded more than a week in the partly flooded cave said they were healthy on a video released Wednesday, as heavy rains forecast for later this week could complicate plans to safely extract them. (Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page via AP)

In this July 3, 2018, image taken from video provided by the Thai Navy Seal, Thai boys are with Navy SEALs inside the cave, Mae Sai, northern Thailand. With heavy rains forecast to worsen flooding in a cave in northern Thailand where 12 boys and their soccer coach are waiting to be extracted by rescuers, authorities say they might be forced to have them swim out through a narrow, underwater passage. The 13 are described as healthy and being looked after by medics inside the cave.(Thai Navy Seal via AP)

CORRECTION - A family member shows a picture believed to have been taken in 2017 of four of the 12 missing boys after hearing the news the group was found, near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district on July 2, 2018. Twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded Thai cave for nine days were "found safe" on late July 2, in a miracle rescue after days of painstaking searching by divers. / AFP PHOTO / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [clarifying the caption details that the photo was taken at a previous time]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these

In this undated photo released by Royal Thai Navy on Saturday, July 7, 2018, Thai rescue teams arrange water pumping system at the entrance to a flooded cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. The local governor in charge of the mission to rescue them said Saturday that cooperating weather and falling water levels over the last few days had created appropriate conditions for evacuation, but that they won't last if it rains again.. (Royal Thai Navy via AP)

Boys from the under-16 soccer team trapped inside Tham Luang cave greet members of the Thai rescue team in Chiang Rai, Thailand, in this still image taken from a July 3, 2018 video by Thai Navy Seal. Thai Navy Seal/Handout via REUTERS TV ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. MANDATORY CREDIT. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A Thai policeman guards an area under rainfall near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on July 7, 2018, as rescue operation continues for the 12 boys and their football team coach. Scrawled deep inside a mountain in northern Thailand, heartwarming fragments of communication from trapped youngsters have reached families keeping vigil for two excruciating weeks at the entrance to the cave complex. / AFP PHOTO / Ye Aung THU

How the Thai cave rescue mission unfolded

How will the Thai cave boys stay sane underground? Their coach – a meditation master – may hold the key

The missing boys and their soccer coach are seen shortly after they were found in a dark, partially flooded cave, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, Thailand, on Monday. Photo: Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center via AP

Rescue workers are seen in front of Tham Luang cave complex, as members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive according to local media in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 5, 2018. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

FILE - In this July 3, 2018, file image taken from video provided by the Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page, the boys smile as Thai Navy SEAL medic help injured children inside a cave in Mae Sai, northern Thailand. The group was discovered July 2 after 10 days totally cut off from the outside world, and while they are for the most physically healthy, experts say the ordeal has likely taken a mental toll that could worsen the longer the situation lasts. (Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page via AP, File)

Thai soldiers and volunteers are seen at the entrance of Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on July 5, 2018. Thai rescuers vowed to take a "no risk" approach to freeing 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave, as fresh video emerged on July 4 showing the team in good spirits following their astonishing discovery nine days after going missing. / AFP PHOTO / YE AUNG THU

Murky floodwaters, narrow passages and limited tech: here’s why rescuing 12 Thai boys trapped in a cave is so tricky

Rescue personnel walk out of the entrance to a cave complex where it's believed that 12 soccer team members and their coach went missing in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province. Photo: AP

epa06846252 A US Special Operations Command Pacific Search and Rescue Team's member (L) talks to Thai Navy personnel (R) after they survey inside the cave area during the rescue operation for the missing football players and their coach at the Tham Luang cave in Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Noon Forest Park in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, 28 June 2018. At least 12 members of a youth soccer team are believed to be missing after being trapped in a flooded cave that they were visiting on 23 June. EPA-EFE/PONGMANAT TASIRI

Rescue personnel drag a water pump up to the flooded cave that a soccer team and their coach are believed to be missing in, Thursday, June 28, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. A U.S. military team and British cave experts have joined the rescue effort in northern Thailand for 12 boys and their soccer coach stranded for a fifth day inside a cave being flooded by near-constant rains. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Two British cave-divers (2nd and 3rd-L) with Thai army soldiers and local rescue personnel are seen searching for new openings in the mountain of Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai province on June 28, 2018 during rescue operation for a missing children's football team and their coach in Tham Luang cave. A team of US military personnel and British divers joined rescue efforts at a flooded cave in northern Thailand where 12 children and their football coach have been trapped for five days as heavy overnight rains hampered the search. / AFP PHOTO / THAI NEWS PIX / Krit PHROMSAKLA NA SAKOLNAKORN

epa06846624 A handout picture made available by the Royal Thai Navy on 28 June 2018, shows a Thai Navy official check the height of the water inside the cave as they prepare to drain water out of the cave, during the rescue operation for missing football players and their coach in area of the Tham Luang cave in Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Noon Forest Park in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. At least 12 members of a youth soccer team are believed to be missing after being trapped in a flooded cave that they were visiting on 23 June. EPA-EFE/ROYAL THAI NAVY / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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‘Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team’


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Elon Musk visits Thai cave where boys are trapped, delivers kid-size submarine – just in case

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team’

‘Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team’