Improvised CO2 scrubber saved the Apollo 13 crew

A reader points me to this interesting post with lots of details and images showing how the Apollo 13 crew and support team on the ground devised an improvised CO2 scrubber from miscellaneous items available in the Command and Lunar Modules : This is the actual hack that saved the astronauts of the Apollo XIII – Sploid

After Mission Control decided to cancel Apollo XIII’s moon landing following an explosion of an oxygen tank in the Service Module, the astronauts moved to the Lunar Module in order to save power that was going to be needed later for re-entry.

The only problem with this plan was that the Lunar Module was designed for only two people for a 36-hour period, not three astronauts for 96 hours. They quickly discovered that carbon dioxide was building up fast, putting their lives in extreme danger. They had to change the circular CO2 scrubbers in the Lunar Module for clean ones, but they only had spare square CO2 scrubbers from the Command Module.

In record time, the Crew Systems Division put together an improvised adapter using all sort of weird and random parts, like a flight manual cover, suit parts, and socks. CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) transmitted the instructions to the astronauts in order to assemble this “mailbox” rig—as they called it—working against the clock and trying to surive fight the effects of the poisonous gas which was quickly asphyxiating their brains.

Apollo13CO2Scrubber_564x415
A picture of the “hacked” CO2 scrubber in the Apollo 13 module.

Planet Hunters citizen science paper reports on 14 new planet candidates

Another paper based on analysis done by citizen scientist contributors to the Planet Hunters program has been accepted by a scientific journal: Latest Science Paper Accepted for Publication: The First Kepler Seven Planet Candidate System and 13 Other Planet Candidates from the Kepler Archival Data – Planet Hunters

We at Planet Hunters are happy to announce the acceptance of the PHVI paper to the Astronomical Journal, in which 14 new planet candidates were discovered. All of these new planet candidates are located far from their host stars. In fact, seven of them lie in their host star’s habitable zone. Unfortunately, all of these planets are too large to be Earth-like.

Two of the new planet candidates are in multiple candidate systems. One of them, the new candidate orbiting KOI-351, is the seventh planet candidate orbiting its host star. Planet Hunters actually detected three new candidates around this star when KOI-351 was only known to have three candidates, showing how great the Planet Hunters can be in discovering multiple planet systems. The planets in KOI-351 also show strong gravitational interactions between the planets, which helps to confirm them as true planets. The gravity from some planets in the system causes other planets to transit before or after what we would otherwise expect, called transit timing variations. In fact, the second-to-last planet transited a full day after we expected it would. Others in the exoplanet field have been working for over a year to determine the masses of these planets.

The paper and contributors to the project:

ISEE-3 engines fired successfully

Congratulations to the ISEE-3 Reboot Project team on successfully firing the thrusters of the 36 year old International Cometary Explorer to spin it back up:

From Wednesday:

Today we fired the A and B thrusters on ISEE-3 to perform a spin-up burn. Preliminary results confirm the burn and a change in rotation. Spin rate was originally 19.16 rpm. It is now at 19.76 rpm. The original mission specifications call for 19.75 +/- 0.2 rpm- so we are exactly where we wanted to be.

We are now collecting telemetry in advance of our next DSN pass and our ATP-3 review with NASA. The earliest we expect to make our Trajectory Correction Maneuver is next week.

All in all, a very good day.

See previous posts here and here.

Video: Tropical storm Arthur as seen from the ISS

Tropical storm Arthur was captured on video by astronauts on the International Space Station:

To the Stars International Quarterly # 8 – July 2014

Check out the publication To the Stars International Quarterly #8 (pdf)

2 Co-sponsoring Organizations

NEWS SECTION pp. 3-106

  • 3-24 Earth Orbit and Mission to Planet Earth
  • 25-38 Cislunar Space and the Moon
  • 39-40 Space Tourism (New Section, starting this issue)
  • 41-62 Mars
  • 63-70 Asteroids & Comets
  • 71-87 Other Planets & their moons
  • 88-106 Starbound

ARTICLES & EDITORIALS pp.108-128

  • 108 Early Supporters of Manned Mars Missions Addressed the Risks Involved: – Peter Kokh
  • Wanted Split personality types for Mars Expeditions – Peter Kokh
  • 110 Mars Gravity en route to Mars – Peter Kokh
  • 112 Artificial Gravity enroute to Mars and back strongly advised – Peter Kokh
  • 113 NASA’s Timid record on Demonstration of Artificial Gravity in Space – Peter Kokh
  • 114 Avoiding “Cabin Fever” on Moon and Mars – Peter Kokh
  • 120 The Case of Cislunar Cubesats – Dave Dunlop & AL Anzaldua
  • 123 Lunar CubeSat Projects, Mission Proposals, and Technologies – Dave Dunlop
  • 125 After Russia Leaves the International Space Station – Dave Dunlop
  • 126 Online Op-Ed articles from other Writers worth reading

STUDENTS & TEACHERS pp. 129-136

  • 137 Recent Feature Articles in Our Sister Publications: Ad Astra; Moon Miners’ Manifesto
  • 138 About this issue: Peter Kokh