Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has announed that a team of SpaceX engineers is set to built a mini submarine to help rescuing and their football coach who have been stuck in a cave following a flash flood in northern Thailand for almost two weeks.
Musk’s company, Boring Co, which digs tunnels for transport systems, has sent a team of engineers to Thailand to see if they can help to rescue the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 8 July 2018
Simulating maneuvering through a narrow passage pic.twitter.com/2z01Ut3vxJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 9 July 2018
The media calls the situation a war against water and a race against time. Monsoon rains bring a very real risk of water levels rising inside the cave system, further complicating what is already a very challenging effort to save the trapped kids.
Meanwhile, expert cave divers that have no links to Musk’s companies have rescued five of the boys so far.
On July 9, Musk tweeted that “mini-sub arriving in about 17 hours” to Thailand. However, without real tests passed by the sub, it’s hard to expect that this device will really be implemented in an attempt to save the kids. There is not enough time to employ Musk’s idea.
Thus, all the activity of SpaceX and Boring Co as well as Musk’s media campaign over the issue is another attempt to gain a media attention this time using the disaster situation.
Various PR tricks to gain media attention are an obvious strategy of any business. However, when these tricks involve kids’ life, this becomes not normal.
