Apollo_13 - Celebrity Encyclopedia

Apollo 13 was the third manned lunar-landing mission, part of Project Apollo under NASA in the United States. The crew members were Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise. It launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days after the launch, the Apollo spacecraft was crippled by an explosion, caused by an electrical fault in an oxygen tank. The explosion damaged the Service Module, resulting in a loss of oxygen and electrical power. The crew used the Lunar Module as a „lifeboat“ in space. The command module remained fully functional on its internal batteries, but they were needed for re-entry and landing so it was shut down shortly after the accident. Despite great hardship caused by severe constraints on power, cabin heat, and potable water, the crew successfully returned to Earth. The mission was thus called a "Successful Failure".^[3] A radio transmission from Lovell^[4] during the mission, "Houston, we've had a problem" spawned the misquoted phrase in popular culture, "Houston, we have a problem".

Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each person before and including this mission.

Ken Mattingly was originally slated to be the Command Module pilot. After being exposed to rubella (German measles) - a disease to which Mattingly was not immune - contracted by backup Lunar Module pilot Charles Duke, Mattingly was grounded shortly before launch. He was replaced by Jack Swigert, and later flew with the Apollo 13 backup crew as CMP of Apollo 16. Mattingly never contracted rubella.

Backup crew

Support crew

Flight directors

Mission parameters

Oxygen tank leak

Closest approach to Moon

Mission highlights

The Apollo 13 mission was scheduled to explore the Fra Mauro formation, or Fra Mauro highlands, named after the 80-kilometer-diameter Fra Mauro crater, located within it. It is a widespread, hilly geological (or more properly, selenological) area covering large portions of the lunar surface around Mare Imbrium, and is thought to be composed of ejecta from the impact which formed the mare.

The cost of the mission was 4.4 billion US Dollars. A successful flight to Fra Mauro was accomplished by Apollo 14.

The flight's problems began during the liftoff with a lesser-known malfunction: during the second-stage burn, the center engine shut down two minutes early. The four outer engines were run for longer than planned, to compensate for this.^[7] Engineers later discovered that this was due to dangerous pogo oscillations which might have torn the second stage apart; the engine was experiencing 68g vibrations at 16 hertz, flexing the thrust frame by 3 inches (76 mm). However, the oscillations caused a sensor to register excessively low average pressure, and the computer shut the engine down automatically.^[8] Smaller pogo oscillations had been seen on previous Apollo missions (and had been recognized as a potential problem from the earliest unmanned Titan-Gemini flights), but on Apollo 13 they had been amplified by an unexpected interaction with cavitation in the turbo-pumps.^[9] Later missions included anti-pogo modifications which had been under development before Apollo 13. The modifications included the addition of a helium gas reservoir in the center engine-s liquid oxygen line to dampen pressure oscillations; an automatic cutoff for the center engine in case this failed; and simplified propellant valves on all five second-stage engines.

Explosion

En route to the Moon, at a distance of 321,860 kilometers (200,000 mi) from Earth, the number two oxygen tank, one of two in the Service Module (SM), exploded.^[10] Mission Control had requested that the crew stir the hydrogen and oxygen tanks to keep the contents from stratifying and thus interfering with tank quantity readings. When the crew activated the system, damaged wires leading to the stirrer motor in oxygen tank 2 short-circuited and ignited Teflon insulation. The resultant fire increased tank pressure above its nominal 1,000 PSI (7 MPa) limit and the tank failed. This was unknown at the time and the crew initially thought that a meteoroid might have struck the Lunar Module (LM).

The failure also damaged the number one oxygen tank. Its contents slowly leaked out over the next several hours, leaving the SM completely without oxygen. Because the fuel cells in the service module needed oxygen to generate electricity, the loss of all oxygen left the command module with power only from its batteries. These were for use only at re-entry after the SM was jettisoned and would last only about ten hours. The crew was advised to shut down the CM completely and to use the LM, still attached to the CSM, as a "lifeboat". This had been suggested during a training simulation before the flight but had not been considered a likely scenario.^[11] Without the LM, the accident would certainly have been fatal.

The damage to the Odyssey made it necessary to cancel the planned lunar landing. Instead, a pass around the Moon was made to enable a free return trajectory that used the Moon's gravity to return the spacecraft and crew as quickly as possible to Earth. Apollo 13 initially had been on a such a trajectory, but to land at Fra Mauro required a course correction early in the mission. Restoring it meant another significant course correction. This would normally have been a small burn with the SM's Service Propulsion System engine, but flight controllers could not ascertain its condition and would not risk using it. Therefore the course correction was performed with the LM's descent engine, an option reached only after extensive discussion on the ground. The return to a free-return trajectory was made within hours of the accident. Some hours later, after passage around the Moon, the descent engine was fired again for a PC+2 burn (PeriCynthion + 2 hours) to speed the return. One more descent engine burn was later required for a minor course correction.

Considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure was required from both the crew and the flight controllers for the crew's safe return. Much of the world watched the developing drama on television. Because electrical power was severely limited, no more live TV broadcasts were made; TV commentators used models and animated footage as illustrations. Even voice communications were often difficult owing to minimal power levels.

The major challenge was that the consumables in the LM "lifeboat" were intended only to sustain two people for two days, not three people for four days. Oxygen, however, was the least critical consumable. Repressurizing the LM after each EVA required a considerable amount of oxygen, but with all EVAs canceled there would be plenty for the return trip. Electrical power, and especially water, were the real problem. The LM was powered by batteries during independent flight and by an umbilical from the CSM during translunar coast. To keep the LM life support and communication systems going until re-entry, the LM was powered down to the lowest levels possible. This then made water (needed for drinking and to cool the LM systems) a scarce resource.

Another serious limitation was lithium hydroxide (LiOH) for removing carbon dioxide. The LM's internal stock of LiOH canisters would not support the crew until return, and the remainder was stored in the descent stage, out of reach. The CM had an adequate supply of canisters, but they were cubical while the LM canisters were cylindrical. Ground controllers improvised a method by which CM canisters could be hooked up to the LM's air-scrubbing system using materials available aboard the spacecraft. The astronauts called the jury-rigged device "the mailbox."^[12]

By this time, low power levels caused the spacecraft interior to cool considerably. Water condensed in the CM, causing concern this might damage electrical systems when it was reactivated. This turned out to be unwarranted, partly because of the extensive CM design modifications after the fire aboard Apollo 1.

As Apollo 13 neared Earth, the crew jettisoned the Service Module before the Lunar Module so pictures of the damaged SM could be taken for later analysis. The crew reported that the panel covering the oxygen tanks and fuel cells--extending the entire length of the SM--was missing.

After jettisoning Aquarius, command module Odyssey splashed down safely in the Pacific. Although the crew was generally unharmed, Haise suffered a serious urinary tract infection as a result of the scarcity of potable water on the damaged ship and the difficulty of urine disposal. To avoid altering the trajectory of the spacecraft, the crew had been instructed to store urine and other waste products on board instead of dumping them into space. Mission Control had intended this to be temporary, but because of a misunderstanding the crew avoided urine dumps for the remainder of the mission. ^[13]

Although the explosion forced the mission to be aborted, the crew was fortunate that it occurred on the first leg of the mission, when they had maximum of supplies, equipment, and power. Had the explosion occurred while in orbit around the Moon or on the return leg after the LM had been jettisoned, the crew would have had a significantly smaller probability of survival.

Ironically, the crew's lives may have been saved by another failure in the oxygen tanks. At around 46h 40m into the mission, the oxygen tank 2 quantity gauge went "off-scale high" (reading over 100%) and stayed there. As a result of this failure, and to assist in determining the cause, the crew was asked to perform cryo-tank stirs more often than originally planned. In the original mission plan, the stir which blew out the tank would have occurred after the lunar landing.^[14]

Cause of the accident

The explosion on Apollo 13 led to a lengthy investigation of the underlying cause. Based on detailed manufacturing records and logs of mission problems, the oxygen tank failure was tracked to a combination of multiple faults. Individually, they were not critical problems; but together they led to near disaster for Apollo 13.

Cryogens, such as liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen, require great care in handling, and most storage containers holding them are unsealed so that pressure from expanding gas will not cause the container to fail. The Apollo-s oxygen tanks were made capable of safely sustaining supercritical pressures for years before it evaporated, because of their design and insulation. Each tank was able to hold several hundred pounds of the highly pressurized fluid to supply the craft with oxygen, fuel for electricity, and water from the byproducts of the fuel cells. However, the very characteristics that made the tank useful made internal inspection impossible.

The tank was made of several basic components that were relevant to the accident:

These were the basic design, manufacturing, and operational problems that led to the accident:

Mission notes

The original prime crew for Apollo 13 was the backup crew for Apollo 10 with Mercury and Gemini veteran L. Gordon Cooper in command. Lovell's crew, backup for the historic Apollo 11 mission, was thus scheduled to take Apollo 14. Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton removed Cooper and his crew in favor of Mercury 3 veteran Alan Shepard, who had benefited from experimental surgery to correct an inner ear disorder. Cooper had been critical of NASA management as far back as his Mercury 9 mission, which almost led to him being grounded and replaced by Shepard. Cooper had also performed an unauthorized low-level flyby of the Mercury Operations office at Cape Canaveral. Thus, in a change from the usual crew rotation procedure, the prime crews of Apollos 13 and 14 traded missions to afford Shepard's crew more time to train.

Two days before the launch, Apollo 13 backup Lunar Module pilot Charlie Duke contracted German measles from one of his children. Although Lovell and Haise had had rubella as children, command module pilot Ken Mattingly had not, and the flight surgeons replaced him with Apollo 16 backup Jack Swigert. Mattingly never developed rubella, and later flew on Apollo 16, STS-4, and STS-51-C, retiring from both NASA and the U.S. Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral. During the emergency, Mattingly and flight controller John Aaron used the CSM simulator to work up a plan to revive Odyssey using the ship's limited power supply.

Also, the original lunar plaque on Aquarius bore Mattingly-s name, so the crew was given a replacement with Swigert-s name on it. Aquarius never landed on the moon, however, so Lovell kept the plaque. In his book Lost Moon (later renamed Apollo 13), Lovell states that apart from the Apollo 13 plaque and a couple of other pieces, the only other memento he possesses is a letter from Charles Lindbergh.

As a result of following the free return trajectory, the altitude of Apollo 13 over the lunar far side was approximately 100 km greater than the orbital altitude on the remaining Apollo lunar missions. It may all-time altitude record for human spaceflight. The variation in distance between Earth and the Moon, however, is much larger than 100 km, so it is not certain whether the actual distance from Earth was greater than that of other Apollo missions. The Guinness Book of Records lists this flight as holding the absolute altitude record for a manned spacecraft, thus Lovell and crew should have received a certificate attesting to this record.

Superstitious people have associated the belief that 13 is an unlucky number with the mission. The mission began on April 11, 1970 (4/11/70, the individual numbers adding to 13) at 13:13 CST from Complex 39 (three times thirteen). The mission's problems began on April 13, and the mission itself was called Apollo 13. Other coincidental appearances of the number 13 connected to the mission included the explosion occurring at 19:13 CST, and a post-flight estimate that, had the explosion occurred on the ground, repairing the damage would have cost $13 million. In a feature on the making of the Apollo 13 film, Jim Lovell pointed out that NASA has never had another spacecraft numbered 13. However, in NASA's preliminary schedule for the return to the moon, an upcoming spaceflight is to be called Orion 13.

The A7L spacesuit worn on the lunar by Lovell would have been the first surface to feature red bands on the arms, legs, lunar EVA helmet assembly, and the life-support backpack. This came about because Mission Control personnel watching the video feeds of Apollos 11 and 12 had trouble distinguishing the astronauts while both had their helmet sunshades down. The red bands were a feature for the remaining Apollo flights and are used on the Extravehicular Mobility Units worn by the astronauts of the Space Shuttle program and on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Apollo 13 mission has been called "a successful failure" in that the astronauts were brought home despite not landing on the moon and the dire nature of their aborted mission.

The Cold Cathode Gauge Experiment (CCGE), which was part of the ALSEP on Apollo 13 was never flown again. It was a version of the Cold Cathode Ion Gauge (CCIG) which featured on Apollo 12, Apollo 14, and Apollo 15. The CCGE was designed as a standalone version of the CCIG. On other missions, the CCIG was connected as part of the Suprathermal Ion Detector (SIDE). Because of the aborted landing, this experiment was never actually deployed. Other experiments included on Apollo 13's ALSEP included the Heat Flow Experiment (HFE), the Passive Seismic Experiment (PSE), and the Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment (CPLEE).^[17]

Towing fees

Grumman Aerospace Corporation, the builder of the Lunar Module, issued an invoice for $312,421.24 to North American Rockwell,^[18] the builder of the Command Module (CM), for "towing" the crippled ship most of the way to the Moon and back. The invoice was drawn up by Grumman pilot Sam Greenberg as a gag following Apollo 13's successful splashdown. He had earlier helped with the strategy for re-routing power from the LM to the crippled CM. The invoice included a 20% commercial discount, as well as a further 2% discount if North American were to pay in cash. North American politely declined payment, noting that they had ferried Grumman LMs to the Moon on three previous occasions with no such reciprocal charges.

Insignia

The Apollo 13 crew patch featured three flying horses as Apollo's 'chariot' across space. Given Lovell's Navy background, the logo also included the mottoes -Ex luna, scientia- (from the Moon, knowledge), borrowed from the U.S. Naval Academy's motto, and "Ex scientia tridens," (from knowledge, sea power). The mission number appeared in Roman numerals as Apollo XIII. It is one of two Apollo insignias--the other being Apollo 11--not to include the names of the crew. (This was fortunate, considering that original crew member Ken Mattingly was replaced two days before the mission began.) It was designed by artist Lumen Winter, who based it on a mural he had done for the St. Regis Hotel in New York. The mural was later purchased by actor Tom Hanks, who portrayed Lovell in the movie Apollo 13, and now is on the wall of a restaurant in Chicago owned by Lovell's son.

Relics

The command module shell was formerly at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, in Paris. The interior components were removed during the investigation of the accident and reassembled into BP-1102A, the water egress training module, and were subsequently on display at the Museum of Natural History and Science in Louisville, Kentucky, until 2000. Jim Lovell's lunar helmet is located at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The command module and the internal components were reassembled, and Odyssey is currently on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, Kansas.

The lunar module burned up in Earth's atmosphere on April 17, 1970, having been targeted to enter over the Pacific Ocean to reduce the possibility of contamination from a SNAP 27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) on board. (Had the mission proceeded as planned, the RTG would have been used to power the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, and then remained on the Moon.) The RTG survived re-entry (as designed) and landed in the Tonga Trench. While it will remain radioactive for approximately 2,000 years, it does not appear to be releasing any of its 3.9 kg of radioactive plutonium.^[19]

Popular culture

Portions of the events surrounding the Apollo 13 mission are dramatized in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode entitled "We Interrupt This Program". The story is presented from the perspective of television reporters competing for coverage of the mission.

Apollo 13, a film based on Lost Moon, Jim Lovell's and Jeffrey Kluger's book about the event, was released in 1995. It was directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell, Bill Paxton as Fred Haise, Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert, Ed Harris as flight director Gene Kranz, Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell and Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly. Jim Lovell, Gene Kranz, and other principals have stated that this film depicted the events of the mission with reasonable accuracy, though some dramatic license was taken. Technical inaccuracies have also been noted. The film is among several to misquote Lovell's famous statement, "Houston, we've had a problem."^[4] The film was a critical and box office success, however, and was later nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Harris) and Best Supporting Actress (Quinlan). The film engendered new interest in the history of the Apollo program and American space flight in general.

The 1974 movie Houston, We've Got a Problem, while set around the Apollo 13 incident, is a fictional drama about the crises faced by ground personnel, when the emergency disrupts their work schedules and places additional stress on their lives; only a couple of news clips and a narrator's solemn voice deal with the actual problems.

Notes

^ Richard W. Orloff. "Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference (SP-4029)". NASA.
^ Lunar flyby (pericynthion) executed April 15, 1970
00:21:00 UTC at 254.3 km above lunar surface.
^ Apollo 13 - A Successful Failure
^ ^a ^b [Jones]; Test Division - Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (1970-04). "Apollo 13 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription" (PDF) 160. NASA. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. "Houston, we've had a problem."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Apollo 13 Mission Operations Report
^ Apollo 13 Timeline
^ Apollo 14 Launch Operations (comments on Apollo 13 pogo), Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA
^ Pogo, Jim Fenwick, Threshold - Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne-s engineering journal of power technology, Spring 1992
^ Mitigating Pogo on Liquid-Fueled Rockets, Aerospace Corporation Crosslink magazine, Winter 2004 edition
^ The report of the Apollo 13 review board does not refer to this incident as an "explosion", instead detailing how the oxygen tanks were designed with rupture disks and other safety measures to prevent a catastrophic explosion. See findings 26 and 27 on page 195 (5-22) of the NASA report.
^ Lovell, Jim, and Jeffrey Kluger. Apollo 13. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 83-87
^ "Interior View of the Apollo 13 Lunar Module and the "Mailbox"" (2007-01-16).
^ Account of Apollo 13 by James Lovell, NASA website
^ "THE STIR THAT SAVED THE LIVES OF APOLLO 13's CREW", Jerry Woodfill, retrieved 27 January 2007
^ report of the Apollo 13 review board
^ The Apollo 13 Accident
^ Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP)
^ Invoice from Grumman Aerospace for towing the North American built CM
^ "General Safety Considerations" (pdf lecture notes). Fusion Technology Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Spring 2000).

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