While Apollo 13’s original mission to land on the moon could not be completed with the crippled spacecraft, the crew could still preform some science experiments and preform tasks. While NASA’s main goal after the explosion was to bring the crew home alive, the journey would be long and exhausting so experiments were a way for the crew to stay busy and happy. Having some task to preform also kept the astronauts active, which was essential to their survival as the temperature in the crippled craft dropped.
Apollo 13 was also a record setting flight. To date the crew of Apollo 13 still holds the record for furthest distance traveled away from earth by any human. It also made Jim Lovell the first man to fly 4 space flights, 2 of which were beyond low earth orbit. So even though the original mission was foiled, Apollo 13 still was a groundbreaking spaceflight.
Apollo 13 was also a record setting flight. To date the crew of Apollo 13 still holds the record for furthest distance traveled away from earth by any human. It also made Jim Lovell the first man to fly 4 space flights, 2 of which were beyond low earth orbit. So even though the original mission was foiled, Apollo 13 still was a groundbreaking spaceflight.
One of NASA’s greatest successes out of Apollo 13 was the fact that the crew was returned safely. In the history of spaceflight even a small problem can quickly lead to a fatal situation; as NASA knew all too well with the fire aboard Apollo 1. The work of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft to repair what they could and plot a course for home is a feat of ingenuity that may never be surpassed. From the moment things went wrong aboard Apollo 13 the crew kept calm and focused at the task at hand; no simple feat when you are in a damaged spacecraft spinning off into space.
The moment the oxygen tank exploded aboard the ship the crew relayed their exact situation to Huston. They were leaking oxygen into space, and losing power. The first order of business ways to make sure that the crew and ship were okay; the second was to evacuate the crew into the smaller lander to use it as a “lifeboat”. From their Huston got to work on figuring out how to keep the crew alive, as the oxygen scrubbers in the lander would not keep the crew alive long enough to make it home. On the ground, Huston pulled “all nighters” trying to figure out how to keep the tree men alive. Huston eventually came up with a jury-rigged oxygen scrubber made from parts on the ship and a lot of duct tape. But they couldn’t just show the crew how to assemble it, instead they had to direct the crew of Apollo 13 on how to build the new oxygen scrubbers over the radio. Amazingly, it worked, proving just how dedicated NASA was to bringing the three men home. As flight director Gene Kranz recalls: “Failure is not an option”.
Food and Water were the main concerns. It was estimated that the crew would run out of water about five hours before Earth re-entry, which was calculated at around 151 hours. However, data from Apollo 11, which had not sent its LM ascent stage crashing into the moon as in subsequent missions, showed that its mechanisms could survive seven or eight hours in space without water cooling. So the crew conserved water. They cut down to six ounces each per day, 1/5 of normal intake, used fruit juices, and ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when they ate at all. The crew became dehydrated throughout the flight and set a record that stood up throughout Apollo: Lovell lost 14 pounds and the crew lost a total of 31.5 pounds, nearly 50 percent more than any other crew. Those stringent measures resulted in the crew finishing with 28.2 pounds of water, about 9 percent of the total.
The next hurdle for NASA to leap was how to recalculate Apollo 13’s course to bring the three stranded crewmen back to earth… alive. Any miscalculation or overcorrection could result in the crew impacting with the moon, burning up in earth’s atmosphere, or being flung into deep space. To make matters more desperate the main engine was damaged in the explosion and some of the crew was becoming sick from the cold since the heaters had to be powered down. Huston and the crew would have to team up again to figure out how to get the crew home alive as soon as possible. The solution was to use the lander’s engine to make 4 separate course corrections to bring the crew home in 4 days. Fortunately for the crew, the calculations done by NASA were correct, and the crew safely splashed down into the ocean at exactly 142 hours 54 minutes and 41 seconds after takeoff. They had done it.