Survival. In large measure, the Apollo 13 crew survived their ordeal for the simple reason that, at the time of the accident, they had backup stores of critical commodities: extra power, water, and oxygen - and even an extra engine.
With limited power, food and water, the crew had to rely on the Lunar Module, which was meant for the moon landing, as a lifeboat. NASA's ground team worked around the clock with the astronauts, improvising solutions on the fly.
How did Apollo 13 get back to Earth safely? The Apollo 13 crew used their lunar lander — Aquarius — as a makeshift 'lifeboat' to survive the long cold journey back to Earth. It was a rough journey home. The entire spaceflight crew lost weight, and Fred Haise developed a kidney infection.
The command and lunar modules protected the astronauts against such hazards as cosmic radiation, extremes of heat and cold, and micro-meteoroids. The Environmental Control Systems and the Crew Life Support Systems in the spacecraft provided the crews with oxygen, water, and food.
The crew, supported by backup systems on the lunar module (LM), instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17.
What was the only hope for the Apollo 13 crew to return alive?
Aquarius would be gone, and their only hope for survival would have been the crippled and dying command module. "If this had to happen," Deke observed, "it couldn't have come at a better time in this flight.
No one person or organization was at fault for Apollo 13's accident. It was a systematic failure by NASA and its contractors, at multiple levels, to detect the problem in advance. The problem itself was subtle and the consequence of 2 unrelated events.
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 crew subsisted on 6 ounces of water per person a day. Power was severely rationed, and the temperature inside the cabin dropped below 40 °F (4 °C), causing the crew great difficulty sleeping.
“The setting of the story is indeed based on the Apollo 13 flight. Actual voice tapes, real names, insignia, and facilities are used. However, the plot is fictitious and in poor taste.
And, it had scorched wiring insulation from being tested at incorrect voltages. all the oxygen tanks from that facility had a similar problem. Fixing both of these would most certainly have prevented the Apollo 13 accident.
Astronauts don't leave Earth without it. Duct tape is handy for repairs and, like Velcro, helps hold things in place. It is visible in many photographs of space crew activity and crew work areas. Duct tape helped save the Apollo 13 crew and the Apollo 17 lunar rover.
Unfortunately, an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks seriously damaged the spacecraft during flight and the crew were forced to fly by the Moon, using its gravity to send the spacecraft back to Earth without carrying out a lunar landing. View of Apollo 13 astronauts changing one of the modified LiOH canisters.
Five decades ago, during the aborted Apollo 13 mission of April 1970, the Grumman Aerospace Corporation's Lunar Module (LM) saved three astronauts by becoming a lifeboat and tugboat.
Did Apollo 13 make it back to Earth? Yes, Apollo 13 made it back to Earth with all three crew members surviving. The whole ordeal is considered a triumph of problem-solving and teamwork on the part of NASA.
The astronauts used VHF recovery beacon and radios to guide a recovery ship to the spacecraft's location. A ship recovered the crew and capsule. The information gathered by the astronauts during the Apollo missions has become invaluable to NASA and scientific knowledge in general.
The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. 1 oxygen tank, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly. The service module bay no. 4 cover was blown off.
For spacecraft, those extremes can be dangerous, plus the spacecraft and the people inside it generate a lot of heat. As a result, the Apollo spacecraft was covered with light and reflective surfaces and with multilayered insulation designed to slow the passage of heat in or out.
Fred Haise never flew in space again, but he did fly five Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests in 1977, then retired in 1979. Both Lovell (95 years old) and Haise (89 years old, will be 90 in a few days) are still alive today, btw.
The only survivable option for Apollo missions was to jettison the Service Module, then graze the atmosphere at just the right angle using the Command Module's heat shield to protect them as the atmosphere slowed them down gradually until they reentered and landed.
Their menu, however, was limited to rather unpalatable gelatin-coated food cubes, freeze-dried items, and paste squeezed from tubes. By Gemini, scientists had improved space food substantially in taste and texture, but it was still freeze-dried or dehydrated, there wasn't great diversity in options.
What happened to the original crew of Apollo 13 and why were they bumped from the assignment?
The original crew of Apollo 13 was bumped from the assignment due to a potential health issue with Fred Haise. On March 23, 1970, three weeks prior to the planned launch, it was announced that Ken Mattingly had replaced Haise due to exposure to German measles.
Wilmore and Williams' ISS mission was supposed to last a mere eight days, during which they'd test out aspects of Starliner and see how it operates with a human crew in space. But due to complications with Starliner, the two astronauts are still up there and won't be back before 2025.
— For the record, Ken Mattingly never did get the German measles. The former NASA astronaut, who in 1970 was pulled from the Apollo 13 crew due to being exposed to the Rubella virus, died on Tuesday (Oct. 31) at the age of 87.
Apollo lied to his sister and said that Orion was an evil villain who had just come into their city and raped one of her best friends and he was now fleeing by swimming out to sea. Artemis was furious and immediately hunted down this villain.
