Just finished reading Failure is not an Option, be Gene Kranz. Good book. His account of Apollo 13 is only a small part of the book, but quite interesting. One of things Hollywood consistently fouls up, probably on purpose to create drama, is to suggest that courses of action taken are things that nobody had thought of before that moment. For example, the use of the LM as a “lifeboat”. These and many of the contingency actions taken were planned in the simulators and part of a standard set of “work arounds.”
One of the things they really hadn't planner for, and which the movie didn't even cover (of course) was that they wanted to spin the ship, in order to spread the sunshine around the whole ship, to keep things from freezing. They never tried it using the LM engines, while the LM and CSM were glued together. They had to try it twice because the first time they tried it, they imparted a "wobbling" motion to the ship, which would get out of control quickly.
One things the Movie “Apollo 13” made a big deal of was the start up sequence that wouldn't result in voltage over a certain (small) amount. The movie focused on the sequence of starting up systems, as though that was the most important thing. Maybe it was, but Kranz doesn't spend any time on that. Instead, he stressed that the reason there was such a power problem wasn't a lack of power, but a lack of cooling water. When the fuel cell blew, it took out the ability to create water used for cooling electronics. That's why they had to limit what they could turn on. Anyhow, good book. You should all read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/0425179877
One of the things they really hadn't planner for, and which the movie didn't even cover (of course) was that they wanted to spin the ship, in order to spread the sunshine around the whole ship, to keep things from freezing. They never tried it using the LM engines, while the LM and CSM were glued together. They had to try it twice because the first time they tried it, they imparted a "wobbling" motion to the ship, which would get out of control quickly.
One things the Movie “Apollo 13” made a big deal of was the start up sequence that wouldn't result in voltage over a certain (small) amount. The movie focused on the sequence of starting up systems, as though that was the most important thing. Maybe it was, but Kranz doesn't spend any time on that. Instead, he stressed that the reason there was such a power problem wasn't a lack of power, but a lack of cooling water. When the fuel cell blew, it took out the ability to create water used for cooling electronics. That's why they had to limit what they could turn on. Anyhow, good book. You should all read it.
http://www.amazon.com/Failure-not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/0425179877
