Thai cave rescue - One of the divers has died

So this is a video showing what have been surveyed as the most difficult dive sections:


I don’t think the newspaper friendly graphics in the U.K. news really describes the complexity.
 
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AndyT said:
That’s promising. I suppose if they connect on the right side of the treacherous dive part they’ll be buzzing.
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they can drill way past the depth they at its getting the machinary and logistics right. i cant see any other way of this working apart from drilling a shaft/s down to them.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
they can drill way past the depth they at its getting the machinary and logistics right. i cant see any other way of this working apart from drilling a shaft/s down to them.
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Yes, I know how drilling works (I’ve seem Armageddon). The challenge here has is hitting the right spot to reach the void in an appropriate place to mount a rescue whilst also not collapsing the cave. The Chilean miners were lucky in that sense that we knew exactly where they were in relation to the surface and had a good idea what the underlying geology was.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
they can drill way past the depth they at its getting the machinary and logistics right. i cant see any other way of this working apart from drilling a shaft/s down to them.
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Aye, and just getting the equipment up there to support the equipment needed to make a road that the equipment needed for the drilling is going to be a major task
Things like fuel and ancillary services will need to be in place even before the heavy plant can start to get the access upgraded (food trucks, and accommodation on sight means people can stay in place for longer).

IIRC they started moving stuff up fairly quickly (especially things they knew they'd likely need no matter what*) but if they want to try drilling they're going to have to put in some sort of temporary road, across terrain that likely has never been properly mapped for any type of vehicle, which means they've got to survey it (testing the soil can take the weight etc), then start to clear vegetation (not as easy as films make out), then lay in some sort of temporary surface that'll take the weight of the vehicles carrying the equipment.

I'd be surprised if the Thai government didn't start doing the necessary survey work for access within minutes/hours of them knowing where the children were, but it all takes time and isn't something that can necessarily be sped up simply by throwing more manpower at it, and one of the things pretty much every military tends to have in reasonable numbers, are engineering corps who are used to doing survey work for heavy equipment.

*I suspect fuel would have been one of the first things, as everything needs it including the compressors to fill the air tanks of the drivers.
 
RIP

I am amazed both ways at the stupidity of people and the lengths that people go to help stupid people.

Humanity is truly amazing, again both ways.
Isn't Elon musk onboard now?
One hell of a logistical nightmare to solve.
 
Efour said:
RIP

I am amazed both ways at the stupidity of people and the lengths that people go to help stupid people.

Humanity is truly amazing, again both ways.
Isn't Elon musk onboard now?
One hell of a logistical nightmare to solve.
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Don't think there's any stupidity involved really. Kids being kids hanging out exploring a cave system on one of the kids birthdays.

Warning signs state not to go in the Cave in July but the kids went in June. They got caught off guard by unexpected heavy rainfall while inside and it partially flooded the cave trapping them inside.( Some can't swim) They then moved further inside the cave system to where it wasn't flooding and waited for 10 days for help.
 
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Efour said:
Time to change the warning signs.
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Yup. This stuff happens though. Early rainfall could probably happen in may aswell, you just can't predict every sudden downpoor. The only true safe option would be to close off the cave system to everybody but screw that. Part of Thailand's charm is the lack of health and safety / PC BS. One horrible event doesn't necessarily mean things have to change.
 
Rather than drill from above could they not use a tunnel boring machine somewhere near the entrance and get to them that way. Obviously going to be hugely expensive and time consuming, and the water level will likely have dropped before they even reach them.

Perhaps waiting it out is the only safe thing for them to do assuming they can regulate the atmosphere in the cave.
 
norm said:
Rather than drill from above could they not use a tunnel boring machine somewhere near the entrance and get to them that way.
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* the ground is too uneven
* there's too much water in the way

Quite apart from those issues, how would they get it there and what would they run it on? Boring machines need an enormous amount of electricity. They're also very slow.
 
norm said:
Rather than drill from above could they not use a tunnel boring machine somewhere near the entrance and get to them that way. Obviously going to be hugely expensive and time consuming, and the water level will likely have dropped before they even reach them.

Perhaps waiting it out is the only safe thing for them to do assuming they can regulate the atmosphere in the cave.
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TBM's are not massivly common, or portable.

They're also not really known for being fast (2-3 foot an hour is good from memory).

I doubt there are many available anywhere that could be broken down, shipped and reassembled on site faster than they could get a vertical tunnel done as TBM's are normally large, heavy, complicated machines that require a lot of additional equipment to run.
 
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