NEWMARKET U3A: WINGS, WHEELS & WATER Presentation for April 2020 Due to the Coronavirus, this month’s presentation is designed for home study APOLLO 13 PICTURES: LEFT the Service Module showing damage from the explosion. RIGHT: The three astronauts; James Lovell, John Swigart and Fred Haise Introduction & Overview Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Centre on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon, and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot and Fred Haise as lunar module (LM) pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella. The accident was caused by ignition of damaged wire insulation inside an oxygen tank as it was being rou- tinely stirred. The oxygen in the tank was in liquid form and needed to be stirred with a large sort of elec- tric whisk from time to time to ensure that all the contents of the tank were at an even temperature asnd not causing damage to the tank itself which was lined with Teflon. Liquid oxygen and Teflon are both very volatile and unpredictable materials. Without oxygen, needed both for breathing and for generating elec- tric power, the SM's propulsion and life support systems could not operate. The CM's systems had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for re-entry, forcing the crew to transfer to the LM as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing cancelled, mission controllers worked to bring the crew home alive. Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two days, Mission Control in Houston im- provised new procedures so it could support three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship caused by limited power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of drink- able water. There was a critical need to adapt the CM's car- bon dioxide removal system to work in the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution. The astronauts' peril briefly renewed interest in the Apollo program; tens of millions watched the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean by television. LEFT: A beaker of liquid oxygen An investigative review board found fault with pre-flight testing of the oxygen tank and the fact that Teflon was placed inside it. The board recommended changes, including minimizing the use of potentially combustible items inside the tank; this was done for Apollo 14. The story of Apollo 13 has been drama- tized several times, most notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Background to the Apollo Programme In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy challenged his nation to land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade, with a safe return to Earth. NASA worked towards this goal gradually, sending astro- nauts into space during the Mercury and Gemini Projects, in preparation for the Apollo programme. The goal was achieved with Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited the Moon in Command Module Colum- bia. The mission returned to Earth on July 24, 1969, fulfilling Kennedy's challenge. NASA had bought fifteen Saturn V rockets to achieve the goal; at the time no one knew how many mis- sions it would take to get top the Moon. As the project was successful in 1969 with the sixth Saturn V on Apollo 11, nine rockets remained available for a total of ten landings. After the excitement of Apollo 11, the general public gradually grew apathetic towards the space programme, losing interest as the missions continued successfully with Apollo 12. In the media build up towards the launch of Apollo 13, the public showed little interest and even less excitement apart from the possibilities afforded by the unlucky num- ber 13. Congress continued to cut NASA's budget; Apollo 20 was cancelled. Despite the successful lunar landings of Apollos 11 & 12, the missions were considered so risky that astro- nauts could not afford life insurance to provide for their families if they died in space. Planning for a centralized Mission Control began in 1959, led by Dr Christopher C. Kraft, who became NASA's first flight director. During John Glenn's Mercury Friendship 7 flight in February 1962, Kraft was overruled by NASA managers. He was vindicated by post-mission analysis, and so implemented a rule that during the mission, the flight director's word was absolute—to overrule him, NASA would have to fire him on the spot. Apollo Flight directors had a one sentence job description, "The flight director may take any actions necessary for crew safety and mission success.” He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as America's first crewed spaceflight, first crewed orbital flight, and first spacewalk. Kraft was responsible for shaping the organization and culture of NASA's Mission Control. In 2011, the Mission Control Centre building was Dr Christopher Kraft: NASA’s first Flight Director. LEFT: Mission Control Oper- ations Room just before the Apollo 13 accident. The astronaut on the TV screen is Fred Haise, pilot of the Lunar Module Mission Insignia, Call-signs and Motto The Apollo 13 mission insignia depicts the Greek god of the Sun, Apollo, with three horses pulling his char- iot across the face of the Moon, and the Earth seen in the distance. This is meant to symbolize the Apollo flights bringing the light of knowledge to all people. The mission motto is Ex luna, scientia (From the Moon, knowledge). In choosing it, Lovell adapted the motto of his alma mater, the Naval Academy, Ex scientia, tridens (From knowledge, sea power). On the patch, the mission number appeared in Roman numerals as Apollo XIII. It did not have to be modified after Mattingly's replacement by Swigert since it is one of only two Apollo mission insignia—the other being Apollo 11—not to in- clude the names of the crew. It was designed by artist Lumen Martin Winter, who based it on a mural he had painted for The St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The mural was later purchased by actor Tom Hanks, who portrayed Lovell in the movie Apollo 13, and is now in the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Illinois. The mission's motto was in Lovell's mind when he chose the call sign Aquarius for the lunar module, taken from Aquarius, the bringer of water. Some in the media wrongly reported that the call sign was taken from a song from the musical Hair. The command module's call sign, Odyssey, was chosen not only for its Homeric association but to refer to the recent movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on a short story by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. In his book, Lovell indicated he chose the name Odyssey because he liked the word and its definition: a long voyage with many changes of fortune. The Apollo 13 Mission The Saturn V rocket used to carry Apollo 13 to the Moon was numbered SA-508, and was almost iden- tical to those used on Apollos 8 to 12. Including the spacecraft, the rocket weighed in at 2,949,136 kilo- grams. The S-IC stage's engines were rated to gen- erate 440,000 newtons less total thrust than Apollo 12's, in preparation for future, heavier loads. Ex- tra propellant was carried as a test since future J missions to the Moon would require more propel- lant for their heavier payloads. This made the vehi- cle the heaviest yet flown by NASA and Apollo 13 was visibly slower to clear the launch tower than earlier missions. The Apollo 13 spacecraft consisted of Command Module 109 and Service Module 109 (together CSM- 109), called Odyssey, and Lunar Module 7 (LM-7), called Aquarius. Also considered part of the spacecraft were the launch escape system which would propel the command module (CM) to safety in the event of a problem during lift-off, and the Spacecraft–LM Adapter, numbered as SLA-16, which housed the lunar module (LM) during the first hours of the mission. This is the form in which the Apollo moon shots travelled to the moon. Once on the way out of Earth orbit the Com- mand & Service Modules separated from the Lunar module, turned round and attached it again as in the picture above. Launch and trans- lunar injection The mission was launched at the planned time, 2:13:00 pm EST on April 11. An anomaly occurred when the second-stage, centre engine shut down about two minutes early. This was caused by severe pogo oscillations. Starting with Apollo 10, the vehi- cle's guidance system was designed to shut the en- gine down if these oscilla- tions started. Pogo oscilla- tions had occurred on Ti- tan rockets (used during the Gemini program) and on previous Apollo mis- sions, but on Apollo 13 they were made very much worse by the move- ment of the liquid fuels in their tanks.