Spacelog Apollo 13

And, Houston, while you're thinking, see if you can come up with a procedure of perhaps using the command module optics with manual drive to perhaps look for stars.

Roger.

And, Jack, Aquarius. While you're thinking—before we had our COMM problems, we were wanting to know what to—whether we should hook up the side hatch urine dump system. So we wouldn't freeze up the normal urine dump system.

Roger. We gave you a GO on that earlier. Sorry, you must have missed it. Use the side hatch for urine dump.

Okay.

And, how are the stars out the window now?

Well, I'll look again, Jack, but at this attitude, the Sun is reflecting off of—off of quad 4 so bright that it's ruining any night vision and we still got particles floating around us; I'll have to take a long look and see if I can see any star patterns.

Roger. And Aquarius, we're going to have to hand you over to a different site now, and we think maybe things will work better if this time we turn off the S-band transmitter/receiver, and bring it back up in 5 minutes. You copy?

Okay. Stand by 1.

Okay. I understand you want us to turn off the S-band transmitter/receiver and bring it up in 5 minutes. Is that correct?

That's affirmative.

Tell us when.

And you want us to maintain attitude control.

Affirmative on the attitude control.

That's auto attitude control. Okay. You maintain auto attitude control.

Okay, Jack, I'm back on the line now. On the S-band, you want me to turn off the transmitter/ receiver and the power amps are off for 5 minutes. Is that—when you give me the word—is that what you want?

Aquarius, leave the power amplifier the way it is. Turn the transmitter/receiver off for 5 minutes. Now.

Okay. You tell me—you tell me when.

Okay. Turn it off now. See you in 5 minutes.

Aquarius, Houston. How do you read?

Okay. You're loud and clear there, Jack.

Roger. Same here. We're—We're still discussing the next move.

I figured it. Let's just make it a good one.

Aquarius, our decision for the time is to leave the IMU powered up, power down the LGC, and power down other nonessential items. We'll be coming up with a more precise checklist as soon as we can get it. Over.

Okay. The decision is to keep the platform, power down the computer, and we'll be standing by for further word on the powerdown, Jack.

Roger.

And, Aquarius, for your information, we now have 136-mile perigee. Confirmed by Doppler.

Okay. 136-mile perigee now. That's very nice.

Oh, wait a minute, Jack. Did you say pericynthion or perigee?

I meant pericynthion.

And, Houston, we pulled out your UPDATA LINK circuit breaker, so if you want to update it for anything, let us know and we'll put it back in.

Aquarius, AFT OMNI, please.

Houston, do you read Apollo 13?

This is Houston. Go ahead. Reading you weakly.

Okay, Jack. We don't want to bug you, but you ought to be thinking—or what your thoughts are concerning what the next burn will be. I got to figure out a watch schedule and the sleep schedule and just how we can meet the next maneuver.

Roger. We're getting you a flight plan update. We're still computing on your next burn, and we're getting ready to give you a procedure for powerdown.

Aquarius, one idea on managing the OMNI antennas. It might make it easier on everybody if we disabled the UPLINK SQUELCH and managed the antennas by switching when we hear the noise. Over.

Okay, Aquarius. Here's what we're going to do. We'd like you to point the LM X-axis either north or south. That's the positive X-axis. It appears to us that it would be closer to orient the LM plus X-axis toward the south. Do that with the LGC powered up using the TTCA. After that, we propose to power down the LGC to save some power. However, this means that we lose the use of the TTCA, and we'll have to control the spacecraft with the hand controller in the DIRECT mode. Request your—your position on these two items.

Aquarius, Houston. How do you read?

Okay, Jack. Understand. You want us to point the LM X—plus X-axis to the south using the TTCAs with the LGC powered up. Then, by powering down the LGC, we'll lose a TTCA. I wasn't too successful in controlling the spacecraft in attitude only, but I might be able to keep it out of gimbal lock.

That's affirmative, Jim. We'd keep your ball powered up and go to DIRECT on the hand controller. And maintain attitude in a DIRECT position.