Spacelog Apollo 13

Jack's dosimeter—Jack's dosimeter is reading 02026.

Okay. We got it.

It might be interesting that just after we went to sleep last night we had a MASTER ALARM and it really scared us. And we were all over the cockpit like a wet noodle.

(Laughter) Sorry it wasn't something more significant. I've also got a procedure for you on that H₂ tank; simple thing after you get done stirring up the cryos.

Okay.

(Music—With Their Eyes on the Stars)

That was beautiful. What was it?

A little of “With Their Eyes on the Stars” to wake up to.

Sounds like all the comforts of home. Have you guys got a flower on your breakfast table?

Houston, Apollo 13. Over.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

13, this is Houston. Go.

Roger, Joe. We're standing by for that P37 block data if you have it for us.

Okay. Got it right here, Jim, and it follows. This is the P37 pad for lift-off plus 60. The reason for the update is for weather avoidance in the MPL at 119 hours. It's the same one we passed you yesterday, and it's the same weather, but we still don't expect a problem at the end of the mission. GETI is 060:00, DELTA-V_T 6079, longitude minus 153, GET 400K 118:04. Over.

GETI of 060:00, 6079, minus 153, 118:04.

Roger. That's correct. I've got a consumables update for you, Jim, if you're ready for that.

Ready to copy.

Okay. As of 47 hours, RCS total 1096, quad Alfa 270, Bravo 278, Charlie 270, Delta 278, and the H₂ — They gave me the H₂s in percent, 76 percent; and on the O₂ we have 81 percent. However, we show the O₂ tank 2 reading off-scale high now. We're quite sure it's a sensor failure. We'd like you to verify it with your onboard reading.

Okay. Stand by.

Joe, we confirm. Our gage reading is—on the number 2 O₂ tank is reading off-scale high now, but Jack just tells me that it was okay when we first looked at it this morning.

We verify that. At 46:45 we had 82 percent and apparently when he stirred the, the cryos, the sensor broke.

Okay.

So it's no problem. You're above nominal on all your consumables. On the H₂ tank problem, we have a procedure that we'd like you to carry out which is simply turning the H₂ tank 2 heaters to OFF at this time, and we want to see whether that won't solve the problem of the tank pressure setting off caution and warning. We want to look at it that way for a few hours.

Okay. You want both H₂ tank 2 heaters to OFF. Is that correct?

That's negative; just tank 2. We want tank 1 to stay in AUTO.

Okay. Tank 2 heaters off at this time.

Okay. Good deal. That's been the high tank and apparently while waiting for that pressure switch to close, to start the heater cycle, the tank 1 pressure has been dropping even a little bit lower and just setting off caution and warning, so we feel if we turn off the tank 2 heater and let tank 1 activate the heater cycle, we won't get into the caution and warning range.

Roger.

Okay, Jim. At your convenience we'd like P00 and ACCEPT. We're ready for—to uplink your state vector now since we will not do midcourse 3. Over.

Roger. You're in P00 and ACCEPT, no midcourse 3, and we're all set for a state vector update and I'm giving you the LM/CM DELTA-P here shortly.

Okay. Good deal. And I have flight plan updates for you later, at your convenience.

Houston, Apollo 13. The LM/CM DELTA-P is 1.0 psi.

Copy, 1.0, Jim.

Houston, Apollo 13. I'm about ready for any flight plan updates that you have.

Okay, 13. To start off with, got a minor procedural change for Jack on his next P52, if he's ready to listen to that.

Okay. Jack's still off COMM. We'll hold off on that a little bit and then we'll pick it up when he gets on COMM.

Okay; fine. I've got two updates for you, Jim. One is a procedure for looking for Comet Bennett at about 49:45, and I'll wait till Jack gets up before passing you the details on that. The other update is concerned with going into the LM 3 hours early, and I think Vance mentioned to you last night that this was a possibility, that we'd like to look at the SHe tank pressure early. And since we're not going to do midcourse 3, we'd like LM entry at 55 hours. Is that okay with you?

Okay. Right, that's fine with us. We'll move up LM entry to 55 hours.

Okay. I've got some details on the flight plan for you as follows. Of course, since there's no MCC-3 you'll be deleting all the midcourse 3 stuff including the—the P52, which is called out at about 54-1/2, and we'll be slipping that until later, which I'll—which I'll tell—which I'll tell—which I'll tell you in a minute. Okay. Then you—we want to move the battery charge up 3 hours to about 52:30. And we want to move the—moving the LM tunnel vent valve to LM/CM DELTA-P up 3 hours to 52:45, and at that point you can simply go to the 57-hour point in the flight plan and change your number from 57 hours to 54 hours and start through that. In the remarks section at about 57:50 it says, “O₂ fuel cell purge and waste water dump,” here. If not performed earlier, we want you to do that at 54 hours and 50 minutes. The TV pass then, will be at 55 hours to 55:30. You'll go right through the LM Activation checklist stuff. I'm losing you; let's wait a minute.

13, Houston. How do you read me?

13, Houston. You back with us?

Apollo 13, Houston. Are you back with us?

We're back with you.

Okay. I've gone through the battery charge, the LM vent valve, the fuel cell purge, and then stop PTC at 55 hours, and your roll attitude there will be 285 degrees, which is per the flight plan. The high gain antenna angles are slightly different, pitch 23 and yaw 267 degrees. The TV pass till 55:30, the standard LM activation except for some special steps we'll give you to take a look at SHe tank pressure, which I don't have yet. Restart PTC at about 56:30 or whenever you're through with the LM activities, and after that, at your convenience, we'd like you to—to do the P52 option 3 that we cancelled at 54-1/2 hours. Over.

Okay. That last comment was that we'll do the P52 after we start PTC at about 56:30.

That's right. Any time after that; it's not time critical.

Okay. Let's see if I have some of this, Joe. Around 52:30 we're to do the battery charge on BAT—battery B.

That's correct.

Roger. We'd like the the O₂ fuel cell purge and waste water dump at 54:50.

Roger. We'll pick up those items at 54:50.

Apollo 13, Houston.

Go ahead, Joe.

All right, Jack. One thing we'd like to have done sometime soon is to have you cycle the cryo fans in O₂ tank 2 one more time. We'd like to see if we can get that sensor back.

Okay. O₂ tank 2 fan on now.

Roger.

Houston, 13.

Go, 13.

We—We have just one question, the LM tunnel vent valve. We're questioning why we're venting until the DELTA-V is greater than 1.7 if we are going to open up the tunnel, then pressurize the LM usually.

Right. Stand by on that.

13, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. The word on that, Jim, is that they want to insure the proper O₂ concentration in the LM when you get to the surface, and this is a method of doing that by bleeding out additional nitrogen.

Okay. Thank you.

And, 13, Houston. If Jack is up, I'd like to talk to him about the P52, briefly.

Okay. He's here.

Go ahead, Joe.

Okay, Jack. What they'd like you to do on this P52 at 49 hours, they've been observing a slight jitter in the optics shaft angle of about 0.2 of a degree plus or minus. Before you come out of the OPTICS ZERO position, at the start of this P52, they'd like you to just observe the shaft readout, and see if the jitter occurs on your direct readout there, and also they'd like you to briefly call up a VERB 16, NOUN 91 so we can look at the shaft and trunnion angles.

Okay. Let's see if I got it right. On the P52 at 49 hours, before coming out of ZERO on the OPTICS, observe the shaft and also call up 16, 91 and let you look at the shaft and trunnion angles to observe a possible jitter. See whether it occurs in the ZERO position as well as out of ZERO.

Roger, Jack. That's correct; and if you have time, now, I've got a flight plan update for you on looking for the Comet Bennett.

Okay. Stand by 1, Joe. And the commander's going off the air briefly.

Roger that.

Okay, Joe. I'm ready to copy the … now.

Okay, Jack. I'm going to read it to you, and then add some comments and we'll talk about it a little. This should occur sometime after 49:30. After the P52 realine at 49 hours, if time permits we would like the crew to investigate while in PTC if there is a roll angle in which the comet can be observed for photos. If there is, record the optimum roll angle for possible photography, prior to reinitiating PTC at 56:30 or so, whenever the guys are done in the LM, use P52 planet option, and the following half-unit vectors for tracking Comet Bennett at about 49:46. Are you ready to copy half-unit vectors? Over.

Okay. Go ahead, Joe.

Okay. R₁ plus 0.34202, R₂ minus 0.07374, R₃ plus 0.35719. Read back.

Okay. Copy R₁ plus 0.34202, R₂ minus 0.07374, R₃ plus 0.35719.

Okay. That's correct and the last sentence on the update is that you can expect AOS of the comet at a roll of 45 degrees and LOS at a roll of 155 degrees. Now, the deal here, Jack, according to the plots they showed me is, the comet appears to be about 10 degrees away from the Sun, and due to the geometry of the LM there shadowing the Sun, it would appear that you will be able to see the comet through the sextant without getting Sun shafting between roll angles of about 45 degrees and 75 degrees. It appears that as your roll gets higher than 75 degrees, although the comet is still in the field of view, the Sun is also in the field of view, and you probably will not have any success between 75 and 155 if you haven't got it from 45 to 75. If you do find that you can see the comet somewhere between 45 and 75 or 80 degrees, just note that roll angle and then if it's feasible we'd like you to photograph it after the LM entry part of the checklist. Over.

Okay, Joe. Let me give it back to you and see if I've got it here. After the P52, during our PTC you want us to use P52 and observe Bennett's Comet through the sextant; note a roll angle if we can find it visible. It would be visible somewhere between—ideally between 45 and 75 degrees, and we should lose it about 155 roll, and if we do see it, make an observation of whether it is photographable, note the roll angle for photographs to be taken after or prior to initiation of PTC at 56:30.

That's exactly right, Jack.

Apollo 13, Houston.

Go ahead, Joe.

We're ready to have to O₂ tank 2 fan off, and thank you.

Okay. Doesn't look like we got it back, huh?

Houston, Apollo 13.

Houston, Apollo 13.