Spacelog Apollo 13

We're still here, Fred. How's it going?

Okay. My CO₂ reading is now just below 13.

Say again what it is.

It's just—just below 13.

Okay. Just below 13. And just for your information, we've got people working on several subjects. We're working on the midcourse coming up to determine our control system and how to do it with the control system we select, what we should do about the alinement. We've got the LMS and a couple of crews cranked up working on that. And we're also working on our entry, how and when we ought to activate the CSM. And we're working on the CSM systems status. Tomorrow sometime we're going to have a MAIN BUS B checkout, so we've got a lot of people swinging pretty hard here and I've got some f-stop settings for you for the lunar-surface camera. At 1/250th, we'd like you to take targets of opportunity. Each picture use three f-stops, because we don't know exactly which one is going to work the best, so use 4, 5.6, and 8 and 1/250th for the surface camera. Copy?

Okay. Use the surface camera at 1/250th, 4, 5.6, and 8. And I've been doing quite a bit of shooting at covering two of those numbers in the range 5.6, and 8. I've also been shooting some at 11, so I'll just drop it down a little more. The Moon is still so big and bright there that I got a feeling that the Moon is probably up around the f/8 to f/11 range.

Roger, I didn't catch that last part. Maybe when the COMM gets a little better you can say it again.

Okay. How do you read now, Jack?

That's a lot better, Fred.

Okay, I just said the Moon is still so bright, that I think probably the higher range of f-stops will be better; f/8, maybe even f/11.

Okay.

I can just barely, on the left corner of the Moon now, make out the foothills of Fra Mauro formation. We never did get to see it when we were in close, there.

Okay. I'm reading on my monitor here, Fred, that you're 16214 miles away from the Moon moving at about 4500 feet per second.

Okay.

From the sounds of all the work that is going on and is still going on, this flight is probably a lot bigger test for the system on the ground than up here.

Yes, you've been—you've been working it out a little bit.

Yes. I've really got a tough job right now switching OMNIs.

Well, everybody down here is 100-percent optimistic. Looks like we're on the up side of the whole thing now.

Yes, I guess we had better be in good shape, particularly ourselves, rested for that entry day. I think that is going to be a pretty busy one.

Right, and we're working on procedures for that. Ken's been doing quite a bit of work on getting ready for entry.

How's it going, Fred?

Okay. Just fine.

Okay. We're considering a midcourse correction at 104 hours—about 20 hours from now—18 hours from now, and it's only 7 feet per second. The other option is to keep PTC up, since we may not be able to get back into it again, and delay it. So, that's the type of thing we're thinking about, but—just wanted to let you know that you're pretty much right in the middle of the fairway there and our present tracking, with no midcourse, has you—with a Gamma of 7.11, as opposed to 6.51. So, you're already in the corridor. You're just a half a degree between the center and the outer limits and we're going to tweek that up.

Okay. That sounds good.

And—we don't—Well, we think there might have been a misunderstanding earlier on the potable water. Don't worry about drinking water. Drink all you want. There's plenty of it. There's 38 pounds, and the Surgeon recommends that you use some of the fruit juices as well. Over.

Okay. Yes, we went up and—and used the procedure to pressurize surge tank, and Jack and I made up a total of 22 drinks of—drinking water.

Okay.

And I assume that Jack is up there sleeping now too, right?

Yes. That's affirm. They're both up there.

I hate to say it, Jack, but I think our PTC is about to wobble off a little bit. I've noticed that the Earth is coming by somewhat lower in the window and the Moon is going by somewhat higher.

Okay. Understand. PTC, Earth is coming by lower and Moon is coming by higher.

Yes.

And, Fred, on this jerry-rigged command module lithium hydroxide canister, what we're going to do is we're going to have to make at least two up and use two at a time—one on each set of hoses. What we'll do is we'll connect one of these jerry-rigged boxes to the red fittings and air will be sucked through the lithium hydroxide and then blown out the blue fitting. And we're also going to, when we do this, remove the LM lithium hydroxide canister from the suit loop, either the primary or the secondary, and we're getting the words together to make it easy to build one of these things, and it looks like it will probably take two guys, so, I think we probably ought to plan to do that later. In addition, we have to go up and get a couple of canisters out of the command module, so it looks like maybe a smart idea would be to delay a little bit and have you build a couple of these later on. What do you think?

Yes. I agree, Jack. Jack Swigert and I went upstairs earlier and both got a canister, and we were scratching around for some material and thinking about using them, and that's actually why—when we made up all the water to drink because we needed the plastic container that they were housed in in the pantry, and we had that ready to use with some material plus some of the—the extra porous bags that were going to be used for the dump control that we may just cut up and use, too.

Did you come up with a design or —

Plus we got lots —

No. We just thought we'd see what we had in the way of material and stand by for your word. Of course, we also have lots of stiff-backed cardboard flight data.

Yes. We have decided to use a canister and, you know that the liquid-cooled garment has a bag around it that we think we can use, too, or that we know we can use. We've tried it. So what you have is the—a bag within a bag and inside that is the liquid-cooled garment. The bag that is closest to the liquid-cooled garment is the one we need, and we've got two of them. And then, of course, we've got to use some tape and, as you say, one of the backs to flight data file time line book or something like that, and, just using those materials, we can make this jerry-rigged canister. So, the bag that we're looking for is the one that is right next to the liquid-cooled garment, and, if we're very careful about where we cut it, we can make a pretty good rig.

Okay.

It looks like we'll have to use that bag over again, though, because we only got two of them, and I expect that we'll have to make more than two of these canisters up.

Roger.

Fred, in about 4 minutes, we're going to hand you over to a different communications site, and it's going to take us about a minute or so to reestablish uplink, so you can be prepared for that.

Fred-o, we've handed over now. How do you read?

Loud and clear, Jack.

Same here.

In fact, you're coming in a little louder.

Yes. It appears the wobble is going the other way, Jack, because the Earth is now rising and the Moon is starting to get lower in the window.

Roger. Could you give us an LPD number periodically?

LPD number? Yes, okay.

In fact, if you could give it two or three REVs in a row, why then we could predict where it's going and maybe help us set it up again if we have to.

Okay.

Okay. The center of the Earth has just gone by at an LPD number of 4.

And the center of the Moon is about LPD 21.

Okay. LPD 21. Is that the center of the Moon, you say?

That's affirm.

And, Fred, we're doing a little better on our water than we had anticipated. Our numbers were designed for 3.5 pounds per hour; we're using about 3.0, and expect to go a little bit less.

Beautiful.

When this flight's all over, we'll really be able to figure out what a LM can do.

Maybe it'll make the …

Okay. The Earth went—just went by about—clear above the LPD index. It was—it was, if it were extended, the number would be minus 6.

Okay. Way up there at minus 6.

Yes, there's actually no such number. I just extended the line beyond zero which, for a negative rate, is what it would be if there was one.

Right. If minus 6 was there, that's where it would be. Right?

That's right.

Do you still have that super-dense star field?

It's still there. I'm looking at it right now. I can look at—the Sun is right behind me, then all these sparklies show up. Yes. It kind of looks like I'm right in the middle of the—of the Milky Way. There are several thousand little sparklies at various ranges out as far as I can see …

They're kind of interesting. They're all moving … and sparkling there. And I can …—at least I think I can what will occasionally give you a real star from the bunch of sparklies, but it really does break up the capability to pick out a star pattern, particularly through …

Okay. So far, we haven't identified what the sparklies are and what is venting.

How you feeling, Fred?

Oh, as soon as I chug down this grape drink and grapefruit—orange drink, I think I'll be in pretty good shape.

How much sleep did you get between the burn and the time you got up for this exercise?

Oh, I'd guesstimate about 4 hours, Jack. Wait a minute, which burn you talking about?

It was the burn we just made. Did you get any sleep between it, and the time you got up for this watch?

Oh, no. I didn't—I haven't been to bed since all the action the night before, and I went to go to bed for about 4 hours then …

Yes.

Well, we're just trying to figure out who's likely to be the most tired up there. You or Jim.

I think we'll get caught up pretty good in the next couple of days.

Say again.

Okay, Jack. The Earth has started back down. The hack on the LPD there was 1 degree.