Posted on 07/10/2018 7:23:15 PM PDT by Rebelbase
Entrepreneur turns on mission leader who rejected his offer of a submarine
Elon Musk has questioned the expertise of Thai rescue officials who turned down his offer of a submarine, despite their having organised the successful rescue of all 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave.
The entrepreneur had offered his help and posted footage of tests being carried out on the apparatus he proposed in recent days.
But while Narongsak Osatanakorn, the head of the joint command centre co-ordinating the operation, acknowledged Musks offer he said that the mini submarine would not have been practical for the cave rescue.
Even though their equipment is technologically sophisticated, it doesnt fit with our mission to go in the cave, Osatanakorn told reporters.
In response, Musk said Osatanakorn was not the subject matter expert, adding that he believed he had been inaccurately described as rescue chief, and should be more accurately referred to as the former Thai provincial governor.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“The whole operation looked uncannily parallel to a Christian salvation story. I give the ultimate glory to God.”
I told my son (a youth pastor) - “This is going to make for a good sermon.”
And YOUR expertise is?
Please explain how the sub gets through spots a person barely could, per many sources. Are those sources wrong? Was there more than one route out?
Yes — it can be hard for them to see a larger social (and spiritual) picture. Having gone into an engineering career as a rank, rough edged unbeliever with a mostly head-knowledge interest in God, I know it too.
At any rate, who knows, maybe in other particular situations Musk’s capsule could be of help. In this case, the low tech beat the high tech. Could Musk’s capsule help divers, perhaps, explore shipwrecks more efficiently? That might be an avenue to explore.
I bet it will.
Ultimately, it doesn’t sound like a good idea. The fins or whatever on the capsule could get snagged and they have no feeling to guide them, unlike the extremities of a human. A human clambered into the cave through the narrows, and could and did clamber back.
Hmm. Maybe they should have tried the sub.
But Musk still seems like a prick, always inserting himself.
Elon and yourself seem to be under the impression that this was still water all the way to the entrance. This is incorrect. If it was that easy, an experienced diver wouldn’t have needed to take 6 hours to get to the boys, and wouldn’t have died running out of air trying to get back out; airpockets were few and far between.
About 20% of the rescue time was actual swimming. In about 80% of the cave “full climbing gear” was necessary to scale dry rock to get around to the next section of water. The boys were strapped onto stretchers for each climb and hauled up by the divers/climbers. The ‘muskbug’ would only have been effective for the first 100 ft dive to Pataya Beach and then it would have been stuck, unable to proceed and in the way, turning it into a hazard.
simplified crosssection of cave, showing high and low spots and underwater dead-man traps:
https://wdef.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ctm-0704-thailand-cave-rescue-map-5-1.jpg
50 sec. video showing narrow passages and underground current:
Below is the actual craft. Because of its length and rigid construction, I would expect a dry run to see if it would go through those tight passages. Did they have the time for such a test?
I understand some people are visual persons; see my post 107 for some visuals.
Musk was wrong with his ‘slinky air tube’ idea, he was wrong with his ‘muskbug’ idea and he was wrong thinking hi-tech can solve every issue. Sometimes the answer is good old fashioned muscle and courage. Although I doubt Musk ever utilized either in his life and so that could be a foreign concept to his thinking.
Got that right. I’ve been slamming him here since his first preposterous idea of filling the caverns with air to lower the water levels...
The guy clearly had paid Twitter bots the past several nights trying to make it look like he was the man behind the rescue. It was weird to see.
Thou shalt not speak ill of Saint Elon. /s
Did you verify that it would have worked? They had enough on their hands with the successful rescue, to turn it into an ego session for someone.
Heh - have never been in that tight a spot in a cave. But have some experience in very tight spots in attics, floor / ceiling trusses, etc. :-)
(Semi “ /s “.)
In one, in about 120 deg. F heat, it either took about 15 minutes to get turned around, or one could “inchworm” backwards 30 - 40 ft. and a little past the “entrance” and then get out. Back then I was a lot skinnier (and probably lost 5 lbs. on that job!) Anyone any bigger would have probably got stuck and passed out...
Musk reminds me of Jesse Jackson. When something good happens and a lot of cameras are around they show up looking for attention. Why couldn’t Musk have sent a subordinate? Noooo. Not with all those cameras and writers around, waiting for a story.
Yo Elon,
Simple works.
Bickering aside - this was one of the best managed crisis situations in modern history. Especially how the LSM was handled. It was brilliant. Sadly one very dedicated soul was lost - which in it’s self is a minor miracle.
IOW: “They saved all those trapped, but they did it w/o plastering my name all over the place - I don’t like that.”
Most injudicious at this moment in time, if true.
You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.
The Thai cave rescue officials have become international rescue superstars, and (even if) they were lucky, and (even if) they had a lot of behind-the-scenes help from some ice people, Musk should know enough to STFU and let them have the glory they now deserve.
The world themselves compare him to Iron Man.
Iron Man, outside of having the budget, also seems to have 200 hour-long days in which to accomplish things.
There is more to Elon’s statement than just the submarine. He gets negative criticism all the time for his ideas.
I posted here a bit ago that the rescue was a tragedy of errors to which several people got pretty mad at me. The rescue was successful which is all that matters - but yes, lots of things went wrong and lots of judgements were made that weren’t good.
In other words, some stupid people inhabited the project.
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