Thailand says Elon Musk’s submarine idea is ‘not practical’ for cave rescue

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has floated a variety of ways to help free the members of the Thai soccer team – but his kid-sized submarine has been politely rejected for being “not practical” for the mission.

Musk has offered the rescue mission assistance from his companies, and engineers from two of Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Boring Co, were sent to Thailand. It now appears that Musk himself was at the site.

But his latest contribution – a small, child-sized submarine – was not suited to the rescue mission, Business Insider reported.

Narongsak Osatanakorn, the head of the joint command center who has been coordinating the operation, told reporters: “Although his technology is good and sophisticated it’s not practical for this mission,” according to The Guardian and the BBC.

A spokesperson for Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said the prime minister was “highly appreciative” of Musk’s offers to help and “very touched” that Musk had travelled to the region.

Musk tweeted on Tuesday that the mini-submarine is made of “rocket parts” and is named “Wild Boar” in honour of the kids’ soccer team, which has the same name.

Musk said that he would leave the submarine there “in case it may be useful in the future.”

Musk had been offering help over social media and drafting various solutions over the past few days to help free the boys. They were trapped in the cave for more than two weeks before the first boys were rescued on Sunday.

Musk has posted videos of himself in the cave, where many of the comments thank him for his efforts as part of the mission.

Musk posted videos testing the kid-sized submarine on Twitter before he sent it to Thailand, while it was still being tested in Los Angeles.