Reply #4: NASA May Enlist Celebrities to Divert Trapped Chilean Miners During Rescue [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

NASA May Enlist Celebrities to Divert Trapped Chilean Miners During Rescue
By Randy Woods and Matt Craze - Aug 31, 2010 2:37 PM CT

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration may help organize astronauts and celebrities to entertain 33 miners trapped in a mine in Chile during a rescue that may take as much as four months.

The miners, who have been trapped in the San Jose underground mine in the Atacama Desert for a record 26 days, have already received messages of support from Chilean soccer star Ivan Zamorano and the national coach Marcelo Bielsa and have spoken on the phone with President Sebastian Pinera.

“As we progress through in the coming weeks and months there might be an opportunity to have others make contact with the miners,” James Duncan, deputy chief medical officer at the Johnson Space Center, told reporters in Santiago today. They may include famous Chileans or NASA astronauts, he said.

Rescue teams began drilling last night a hole big enough to lift the miners out of tunnels where temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), Pinera said today in televised remarks. The rescue effort may be shortened to two months from an original estimate of four, Walter Herrera, whose company is installing the drilling machine to bore a second tunnel, said Aug. 28.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/nasa-may-enlist-celebrities-to-divert-trapped-chilean-miners-during-rescue.html