Apollo 13 contributions 50 years ago

[DrRaviSharma]

Apollo 13

Dr Ravi Sharma	Apr 18, 2020, 11:41 AM (7 days ago)
to community, Hanneke, Tariq

Henneke and Tariq.

Thanks for wonderful coverage of Apollo 13 events on space.com.
I missed the briefing yesterday.


Apollo 13
I wanted you to know of two major contributions we made during Apollo 13 mission as a small NASA HQ team observing the spacecraft and all its dumps and vents of Oxygen, Hydrogen, Water from CSM and SIVB SATURN rocket stage.

1. I, Ravi Sharma and my colleagues Chuck Buffalano and Jim McLaughlin had already sent pointing coordinates Vs time of observation to 60+ observatories around the globe.(were routinely doing it since Apollo 8). We were not publicized but we were the backup team to track the spacecraft IN CASE HOUSTON LOST COMMUNICATIONS. There are photos taken by some of the observatories of the leakage of oxygen from the Service module after the main explosion.
2. We were also using these observatories during landing on earth as LEM was also entering the Earth along with CM and had the radioisotope thermal generator (RTG) nuclear material on it to power ALSEP experiments on Moon. With the help of observatories and NORAD we tracked the fragments of RTG that landed in Mariana Trench.
3. Third contribution was made by me Ravi Sharma for remaining Apollo missions. I convinced through logic to remove CSM Expt Bay door pyrotechnically before the seperation of LEM to ensure if any mishaps happened at least all 3 crew would be together to return. Earlier they did it after LEM seperation. With additional actuators for removing camera and optics covers, we made subsequent missions safer.

Please publish these comments as a short contribution. I can find and send you the photos from earth of the secondary leakages after the main Oxygen tank explosion if required.
Thanks for a great coverage of Apollo 13.
Regards
Ravi

 

[akashrao]

very nice to read dr sharma!
indeed, apollo 13 went through a tough time when that oxygen cylinder went off and i first came to know about it via the movie clip included in windows vista home edition as one of the promotional clips if i remember well ...
the scene includes a batch of around 20 men put together to work around the oxygen that was limited in availability and the climbing co2 that the crew were constantly breathing out that was becoming troublesome ... out of the available stuff on-board service module, as i saw more of the film lately, the ground staff told the crew to assemble the material in a such a way as to result in a setup that would absorb the climbing co2 so that the limited oxygen remains uninterrupted and the co2 does not climb in concentration ...
very inspiring moments in space history indeed ...
i am happy to know you were part of the team and did these tasks
do post the pics here

 

[akashrao]

 

[matthewota]

very nice to read dr sharma!
indeed, apollo 13 went through a tough time when that oxygen cylinder went off and i first came to know about it via the movie clip included in windows vista home edition as one of the promotional clips if i remember well ...
the scene includes a batch of around 20 men put together to work around the oxygen that was limited in availability and the climbing co2 that the crew were constantly breathing out that was becoming troublesome ... out of the available stuff on-board service module, as i saw more of the film lately, the ground staff told the crew to assemble the material in a such a way as to result in a setup that would absorb the climbing co2 so that the limited oxygen remains uninterrupted and the co2 does not climb in concentration ...
very inspiring moments in space history indeed ...
i am happy to know you were part of the team and did these tasks
do post the pics here

Instead of watching the movie, you should read "Lost Moon" by James Lovell. The movie overly dramaticized events. They were not suffocating when they jury-rigged the lithium hydroxide system. There was not a heated argument between Swigert and Lovell. Pure fantasy on the part of the scriptwriter.

Remember that Hollywood movers and TV shows are written to make money and not to dispense the truth.

 

[DrRaviSharma]

Akshrao - thanks for nice comments,

As indicated our infrastructure was set up since Apollo 8 routinely observing all dumps visible to these observatories which implied clear weather at their telescopes, spacecraft in sunlight and earth observatory at night.
We acted as backup to track spacecraft if telecommunications were lost from it.
Also tracked RTG radiactive capsule during reentry and tracked the mission.

I am searching the Oxygen release captured by one of the 60 observatories participating and plan to post it.