During the Apollo 13 mission, the
? To conserve energy the electrical systems were turned off for long periods of the journey. This meant that the spacecraft lost an important source of heat. The temperature dropped to three degrees Celsius, which was so cold that it was almost impossible to sleep.
Apollo 13's cold, miserable trip home
Without a source of heat, cabin temperatures quickly dropped down close to freezing. Some food became inedible. The crew also rationed water to make sure Aquarius — operating for longer than it was designed — would have enough liquid to cool its hardware down.
To get around the problem, the ships were specifically designed to radiate heat away very quickly to compensate. Just in case this cooling happened too quickly, for instance when not in direct sunlight helping to heat things up, the ship was also equipped with heaters to keep the astronauts comfortable.
With the electrical systems turned off, the temperature approached about 34 degrees Fahrenheit prior to entering the atmosphere. “The instruments did not actually 'freeze. ' They were inoperable with the system turned off. They came to life when we powered up the command module just prior to reentry.
3.5 Apollo 13
During the second period, the Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot slept 5, 6, and 9 hours, respectively. The third sleep period was scheduled for 61 hours, but the orygen tank incident at 56 hours precluded sleep by any of the crew until approximately 80 hours.
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
Mattingly had been scheduled to fly on the Apollo 13 mission, but three days prior to launch, he was held back and replaced by Jack Swigert due to exposure to German measles (which Mattingly did not contract).
Young, John L. “Jack” Swigert, and Charles M. Duke finished training, one astronaut's illness exposed the rest to an infectious disease resulting in an unprecedented change of crewmembers two days before launch.
Update: A typical Apollo blackout lasted about 4 minutes. Due to a shallower re-entry path, Apollo 13's blackout was calculated to last about 4.5 minutes. Flight director Gene Kranz's logs show that it took about 6 minutes to re-establish contact with Apollo 13.
The oxygen tanks were highly insulated spherical tanks which held liquid oxygen with a fill line and heater running down the center. The no. 2 oxygen tank used in Apollo 13 (North American Rockwell; serial number 10024X-TA0008) had originally been installed in Apollo 10.
All three astronauts were forced to pile into the lunar module (LM), which had enough oxygen to support the astronauts, but had been designed for only two. The carbon dioxide produced by all three astronauts exceeded the capacity of the onboard lithium hydroxide filters.
Along the counter of the OMEGA Apollo 13, there's text that reads, “What could you do in 14 seconds?” The message is a reference to the critical window the crew had to burn the engines on the Apollo 13 mission.
A burn time of 15 seconds with the notation to shut down the engine manually at 14 seconds. The targeting for the perigee after this burn 19.8 nautical miles versus present perigee of 87 nautical miles.
The highest temperature that scientists have created — and thus measured — is 2 trillion kelvins. That was in the “quark-gluon plasma” created in an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.
Far outside our solar system and out past the distant reaches of our galaxy—in the vast nothingness of space—the distance between gas and dust particles grows, limiting their ability to transfer heat. Temperatures in these vacuous regions can plummet to about -455 degrees Fahrenheit (2.7 kelvin).
As the smoke cleared they found the bodies, but were not able to remove them. The fire had partly melted Grissom's and White's nylon space suits and the hoses connecting them to the life support system. Grissom had removed his restraints and was lying on the floor of the spacecraft.
Take a ride aboard the Vomit Comet.
In all, 24 American astronauts made the trip from Earth to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. Three astronauts made the journey from Earth to the Moon twice: James Lovell (Apollo 8 and Apollo 13), John Young (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16), and Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17).]]
By the time Apollo 13 came around, the television networks didn't even bother covering the launch because they felt there wasn't enough interest. Apollo 13 was to be the most ambitious mission yet.
The high heat, smoke, and poor visibility meant that recovery couldn't begin immediately. Once it finally did (6 hours after the accident), it took and an hour and a half for the bodies of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee to be recovered from the burned out husk of Apollo 1.
Lovell was selected as a potential astronaut candidate for Project Mercury but was turned down because of a temporary excess of a protein called bilirubin in his blood, which could have been indicative of a liver problem.
One hour and 48 minutes after liftoff, Kerwin called up to Apollo 13, “And you are Go for TLI,” and at 2 hours and 35 minutes, the S-IVB's J-2 engine ignited for nearly 6 minutes to increase Apollo 13's velocity to 24,247 miles per hour, fast enough to escape Earth's gravity well and send the spacecraft and its crew ...
On April 13, 1970, disaster strikes 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blows up on Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission.
Apollo 13's Forgotten Hero. If you've never heard of Glynn Lunney, it's only because he did an exacting job exactly right. Glynn Lunney, seated at left, consulting with Apollo 13 flight controllers.