Spacelog Apollo 13

And we just went on to the secondary CO₂ canister. Fred swapped out the primary, but we want to stay on the secondary until it is all used up.

Okay. I'm going to use the tape … CO₂.

We're reading a partial pressure CO₂ of 4.2 millimeters. We're cleared to use the secondary until it reaches 15.

Aquarius, in comparing our initial estimates of water usage and electrical power usage, it appears that we're right on the money on water usage, and we're using a little less amperes than we had originally expected in our first analysis, so we're either right on the money or just a little bit ahead of the game in that regard.

Well, that sounds encouraging, Jack.

And there are a few temperatures that we're watching for you. You have the heaters powered down. We're looking at them, and those include the PIPAs, the ASA, the quad temps, and your propellants, except for the DPS propellant.

Okay. I've got them here.

We have, as you probably know, several groups working on procedures from here on out. We have a group working on midcourse corrections to determine a system, the attitudes, how to do it, alinement techniques, and so forth. We have a group working on the entry, including how and when we're going to activate the CSM. We have a group working on the CSM system status, and in a few hours—Later on tomorrow, from where we see it, we're going to go to some base configuration on the CSM and we're going to conduct a MAIN BUS B check. Right now the COMM is kind of degrading, and I can't hear what you're about to say very well. But I just want to keep you advised as to how things are going here. And remember you've got duty on the antennas.

Aquarius, are you reading Houston?

…

Okay, Jim. I can hear you talking but I can't tell what you're saying because you're way down in the background noise.

Okay. Can you hear Aquarius now? Over.

Oh, yes. That's much better. Did you get my report on the various types of people and what they're doing around here?

Roger. Sounds like you had things well organized. You might also consider what kind of a stowage configuration … and what we can leave behind in Aquarius.

Okay, Jim. I didn't catch that suggestion on account of the background noise; maybe we can pass it on when it gets more favorable.

I'm thinking in terms of stowage. Whether we would leave the suit. … the Hycon camera in Aquarius, prior to …

Okay. I heard you say something about using the Hycon camera in Aquarius.

Negative, Jack. I'm thinking of reentry stowage attitude. Whether we should—what we should leave behind in Aquarius. Leave the suits behind; leaving such big items as the Hycon cameras in Aquarius. Over.

Oh, understand. You're thinking about stowage. What'll we leave behind in Aquarius when we fall back into Odyssey. Is that right?

That's affirmative.

Okay. We've people working on that, too.

And we presently are tracking you at 22 500 miles from the Moon, moving out at 4400 feet a second.

And, Jim, earlier in the evening, we thought there was a misunderstanding about the amount of potable water you can drink, but we want to advise you that you can drink as much water as you want to. There's 38 pounds in the potable tank, and that's about all you'll need. The doctors suggest you drink as much fruit juices as you want, too.

Jim, earlier in the evening, Fred-o reported some venting out of window number 1 in the command module. He also reported a piece of loose metal about 4 inches square, silver, floating by, and one thing we were trying to establish is whether or not this is a new venting or whether this is part of the residual venting of our original problem. Do you have any more words or comments? And one thing he was doing was taking some photographs and we authorized photographs, targets of opportunity, using the lunar-surface camera number 1, and use the setting of 1/250 of a second, and not knowing precisely what f-stop to use, we suggested taking three of each, using settings of f:4, f:5.6, and f:8. Over.

Roger, Jack. The venting really seems to … I reported earlier, I also spotted the large piece go by and prior to our … burn … The venting you see now is much greater … went into the dark mode, you could easily distinguish stars and didn't have the bright articles and bright objects, and I also have the camera here to take photographs. …

Okay, Jim. Once again I hear you talking back there but I can only pick out a few words; maybe we'll have a better time.

Aquarius, we're trying to improve our communications. Could you turn the BIOMED off and give us a voice check, please?

Voice check follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; voice check out.

How are you doing there, Aquarius?

We're doing good, Jack.

Okay. Sometime when you get two guys available there and you could construct one of these lithium hydroxide rigs, I'd like to have you get the materials together, and we'll go through the steps together.

Okay. Sounds good. And how do you read me now?

Well, there is a lot of background noise, and sometimes it is worse than others and right now I hear you better than I have in the past.

Okay, Jack. I'm kind of curious the amount of perturbations our PTC attitude is taking. I notice that we are getting off attitude, and I'm just kind of curious how far we can let this go.

We were tracking the attitudes with Fred earlier and it looked like what we were doing was oscillating about some point, but coming back. Are you detecting some kind of divergence now?

Not too much. I notice that it's different than when I went to sleep. We are more at an angle now with the terminator of the Earth, so when we started out, we were just about parallel with the terminator, and now we are canted off somewhat. I haven't seen any trends, though, of going back and forth.

And, Jim, our current plan is to not correct the PTC. We're going to take whatever we get and live with it. And we can kind of keep track of what's going on a little better if when you swing past the Earth and swing past the center of the Moon, if you could read off the LPD angles for the center of the Earth and the center of the Moon. Over.

Roger. Will do, Jack. And I'm looking into the AOT now to the right—No, the number 4 detent, and we are venting something back there; I can see particles moving on past the command module. What it is, I don't know.

Okay. Can you identify the quadrant?

Well, I'm looking through the right rear reticle now of the AOT, and when I was back in the command module, I could see it out of the CM 1 window. The particles are rather small, but they are coming out with some force. That's probably what is disturbing our PTC attitude.

Yes, that sounds quite probable, Jim. That's about the same report we got from Fred, but we haven't been able to identify what they might be and probably won't be able to until we crank up the CSM. If there's any change in that status, why, we just want to keep advised of it.

Roger. Understand.

And, Aquarius, we are setting a pretty good vector on you now. And it looks like you're a little bit outside of the corridor. We're looking at a 7-foot-per-second midcourse at 104 hours. We are going to come up with an entry interface minus 8 pad to use in the event of a loss of COMM situation

Roger. Understand, and I hope you have that procedure for attitude.

Roger.