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Engineers who concocted rescue plans for Apollo 13 receive an award of recognition 35 years later.

A group of engineers was honored Tuesday for their brilliant jobs done 35 years ago.

On its way to the moon, Apollo-13 was crippled by an oxygen tank that overheated and exploded, raising concerns the carbon dioxide the astronauts expelled from their lungs as they breathed would eventually kill them. Two of Apollo’s three fuel cells, a primary source of power, also were lost. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert would have died without the engineers’ quick thinking.

Engineers on the ground had to figure out a solution, and then tell the astronauts how to make the fix.

Ed Smylie, who oversaw NASA’s crew systems division in 1970 and is now an aerospace consultant, was glad the engineering side of the mission was being recognized.

Smylie said he was at home watching television when he learned there was a problem aboard Apollo 13. Within minutes, he was at the space center trying to come up with a solution.

The astronauts had moved to the lunar module from the command module to conserve power for the emergency return to Earth. They had lithium hydroxide canisters to cleanse their spacecraft of carbon dioxide, but some of the backup square canisters were not compatible with the round openings in the lunar module.

Smylie and other engineers soon had a proposed solution to retrofit the canisters, but it took a day or two to build a mock-up and get instructions to the crew.

Among the biggest concerns was whether the astronauts had duct tape, Smylie said. He later learned duct tape was commonly used on the spacecraft to clean filters and for other tasks.

Astronaut Fred Haise said the device was tricky to build, but it worked.

"Had someone not figured that out, we wouldn’t have survived. ... We had confidence the right people had been brought in and would work it out," he said.

posted by: kyawoo at 22:12 | link | comments (1) |
manned missions

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#1  22 April 2005 - 16:50

 

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M.T. Daffenberg

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