NASA’s Apollo 13 Mission Report

How does one weigh pounds of water in Zero G?

The main thing that caught my attention was the many references to various weights of onboard liquids such as water, fuel and non liquids such as oxygen while in space. The measurement is in pounds.  While the other mission reports document various weights it is usually regarding how many moon rocks were collected or how much weight the astronauts lost during the  mission.  With Apollo 13, this is the recording of liquids—in a weightless environment!

Full post at my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/nasas-apollo-13-mission-report

The Mystery of Apollo 13

Will We Ever Know the True Story On Apollo 13?

Jim Lovell’s book reads like an account of the movie Apollo 13 rather than a story of the actual event he participated in.   Some of the science in the book is flawed and some of it ranks as absurd.  In other areas the documenting of dialogue exchanges between the Apollo 13 astronauts and Mission Control are provably false.  I am at a loss to explain why this was done since Lovell and co-writer Jeffrey Kluger are supposed to be telling us the truth.  There are enough voices crying “fake” regarding the moon landings as-is and this book’s flaws just adds more reasons for their theories.

Center of gravity in no gravity…

Shortly after the fuel cells blew the Command Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Landing Module (LM) were thrown out of wrack.  The attitude control was thrown off and Jim Lovell’s job was to get the trajectory to conform to the flight path, which he accomplished after some difficulty.  

On page 148 in Lovell’s book it is stated that the added “weight” of the command module, coming in at 63,400 pounds, was causing the problem. It was actually stated that the attached CSM's weight which was throwing off “the center of gravity” of the ships.  Is there a center of gravity in no gravity?  Of course not!  Everything weighs nothing.  And how did the CSM suddenly gain weight in zero G?  Please note this is not an issue on a normal mission when the CSM is in control and LM is docked and not being used to transit to the moon.  

All of this is patently absurd.  Co-author Jeffrey Kluger, an otherwise good science writer obsoletely failed the readers with this nonsense.  It should also be noted in NASA’s Apollo 13 Mission Report, that none of this was ever mentioned regarding weight throwing off the guidance system.  I am surprised Jim Lovell let this go through, or anything such as this, is written in a serious book on this near fatal disaster.  After all, this book is a reprint of Lost Moon, originally published in the 1994, and this flaw, with a host of others, is in that book as well.  There clearly was enough time to correct this.

And to go even further, it is stated on page 225 that the added weight of the CSM was checked out in the flight simulator by two astronauts to see if it would effect the guidance system.  No problems found.  Of course not!  The very idea that they would be doing a test in a simulator when they have to know the CSM weighs nothing in zero gravity, is astonishing.  

(Also, the LM’s weight is never noted.  It was still weightless?  Of course it was as the CSM had to be.)

(None of this reported CSM weight issue is mentioned in NASA technical reports such as the Apollo 13 Guidance, Navigation, and Control Challenges report,  Apollo 13 Mission Report, and the Apollo 13 Flight Journal transcripts.  Links below.)

Pulling the bio-med sensors

Jim Lovell’s irritation with his biomed sensors and the removal of them made for a fine dramatic effect in the Apollo 13 movie, when actor Tom Hanks in the role of Lovell, ripped his off.  

However, it made for the worst part the book because the incident is falsely presented with an invented conversation between Lovell and mission control that never happened.  As the book describes, after Lovell removed the biomeds he was concerned that he would get a lecture by flight controller Vance Brand who supposedly knew he had done this.  He was not reprimanded but was told to turn off his biomedical transmission switch.  The fact is, this conversation is not recorded in Apollo Flight Journal transcript.  According to the transcript, Lovell was told by flight controller Joseph Kerwin to turn off the biomed switch in the LM to conserve power.   Nothing more.  Also, The Apollo 13 Flight Journal, states that once the CM was powered down, all biomed data from the astronauts was no longer being transmitted to NASA.  Brand, if he had actually talked to Lovell would have known this and would not have been able to detect that Lovell’s sensors had been removed.  Besides, at that point, the astronauts were not plugged in to any ports to upload the data.  However, they might have had wireless data transmission since the sensors were connect to the biomes belt the astronauts wore.  But this is unclear in any NASA documentation available. It is clear that to communicate with ground control, they had to be plugged in via a comm cable.

So, the incident as reported by Lovell and Kruger is false, according to NASA’s official transcript.  It is unknown why they would bear a false witness regarding this incident.  

Even the official report features odd flaws

Just as Lowell’s book features constant references to measurements based on pounds, so does the Apollo 13 Mission Report.  For example, it is stated on page 5-11, that 55 pounds of propellent was used for third stage buster separation. On page 5-13, before the command module was shut down, 14 pounds of water were transferred from the CM to the LM.  Overall, some thirteen pages of the report reference pounds as a measuring system.

I am surprised that in an official report such as this, the use of “pounds” being used as a unit of measurement while in zero gravity.  In zero G, how would they know the exact weight say, of water in a tank?  How did they measure 14 pounds of water in zero G?  There is no gravity, hence no weight.  In my research, I have yet to find an answer for this. I don’t see this questioned anywhere.  I also don’t know why the moon Hoaxer crowd hasn’t jumped on this as evidence of fakery.  After all, the only place pounds could be measured would be on a sound stage in Earth.

Even one of the electronic schematics is wrong, showing an output component with no input listed.  There would be no output without an input.

Question

Why are none of of the reviewers of this book on Amazon catching any of this?  

Will we ever know what happened?

Overall, Apollo 13 reads like a dumbed down account of what happened aboard this doomed ship.  Too much dramatic license is taken to the point of making things up.  It’s an insult to the brave men who nearly lost their lives, and to the superb group of technicians and engineers that helped bring them home safely.

The public which paid for the space program deserves the truth.  

Sources

Apollo 13, Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger

https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-13-Jim-Lovell/dp/0618619585/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Jim+lovell&qid=1552480406&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Apollo 13 transcript, Biomeds

https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap13fj/11day3-minimise-power.html

The Apollo 13 Flight Journal

https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap13fj/index.html

Apollo 13 Mission Report

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a13/A13_MissionReport.pdf

Apollo 13 Guidance, Navigation, and Control Challenges, John L. Goodman

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090026451.pdf

Center of Gravity In No Gravity

The damage on the Apollo 13 service module.  

(Updated at https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/center-of-gravity-in-no-gravity)

NASA once again makes the impossible, possible.

The near loss of three astronauts in the Apollo 13 disaster is probably one of the most dramatic events in the history of the moon landings.  It was NASA’s finest moment as the “can do agency” to get those astronauts home safely.  A closer look brings up lots of anomalies  and unanswered questions.

 By now we know the story and the movie.  The public’s interest was waning as the moon landings got too routine.  Then in 1970, Apollo 13 on its way to the moon, suffered an oxygen tank blow on the command module and the three astronauts, James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise had a life or death situation on their hands because the tank explosion also ruined the power systems and ended any chance of accomplishing a landing.  The LM (lunar landing module), still in perfect working order, became the lifeboat and the means of arriving home.  Any problems that ensued the wunderkinds at NASA came to the rescue.  Of note, the jury-rigged carbon dioxide filter that could have ended the astronaut’s lives simply by exhaling.  Good thing they had duct tape onboard!

Jim Lovell’s Book

It’s probably best to go to the source.  Jim Lovell’s book, with co-author Jeffery Kluger, Apollo 13 published in 2000 for the 30th anniversary of the mission, is the recent version of Lost Moon, published in 1994.  It’s a gripping read and well written but filled with peculiarities and scientific oddities that Lovell should have addressed and corrected. 

The strangest part of the book is the constant use of weight as a measurement system.  For example, on page 123, it is stated that the fuel cells were pressurized at 300 pounds per square inch and one of the damaged oxygen tanks was leaking, and eventually, 218 pounds of oxygen would bleed off.  (Page 104 lists 320 pounds of oxygen in the tank before the damage took place.) 

My word, that 1960’s NASA technology is amazing!  Only they could have a tank holding over 200 pounds of oxygen in zero gravity!  I fail to understand how this is possible or how weight such as this, could be measured in a gravity free environment.  Perhaps they used some other method of measuring the volume in the tank?  There is the other issue of pressuring tanks at “pounds per square inch” or PSI, which is a pressure system based on gravity—pounds equals weight.   How does that translate to zero G?   It is common knowledge that in zero gravity everything weighs nothing. If you read the reviews of the book on Amazon, most of which offer high praise, nobody ever points this out. 

This weight issue drives through many of the areas of this Apollo 13 account, as well as many other books by the other astronauts. 

In another example, after the explosion, Jim Lovell had a hard time at first keeping both spacecraft's attitude in proper alignment.  The reason given on page 148 is that the added “weight” of the command module, coming in at 63,400 pounds, was causing the problem.  I kid you not!  It was actually stated that the attached command module was throwing off “the center of gravity” of the ships.   As if there is a center of gravity in no gravity!  Please note this is not an issue on a normal mission when the command module is in control and LEM is docked and not being used to transit to the moon.  But suddenly there is a problem with a dead command module.

And they don’t stop there.  Later, NASA had the backup astronauts test various strategies in the flight simulators, such as piloting the LM with the added “weight” of the command module docked (p. 225).  Again, what weight?  Why is this irrelevant and time wasting exercise?

They are in zero gravity, everything weighs nothing.  And not a single reviewer of this book on Amazon has an issue with this.  

Obviously, I have no background in astrophysics.  But what is written in this account of the Apollo disaster makes no relative sense.  The authors are saying that weight in zero gravity exists and is producing an influence on many spacecraft systems from fuel tanks to flight attitude control.  (This carries over to the Apollo 13 Mission Report, link below, that states at launch there was 338 pounds of water in the LM.  At the end there was 50 pounds left.  Where is the weight coming from? How would they possibly measure it?  Even NASA, it seems, is into this weight in zero gravity nonsense.)

They are in zero gravity, everything weighs nothing.  And not a single reviewer of this book on Amazon has an issue with this.  

Perhaps this account of Apollo 13 is a book written in a dumbed down fashion, so the average person could enjoy the narrative and the heroics and not get bogged down in technical details.   And it should be noted that there are various technical facts that are omitted.  One may research elsewhere online to uncover those details.  

Did this dramatic event actually happen?

Addendum  3.3.19

Added to the links below is the Apollo 13 Mission Report.  Some of it is at odds with Jim Lovell’s book.  

Sources

Apollo 13, Jim Lovell with Jeffery Kluger, Houghton Milfflen Company, 2000.

Center of gravity, center of mass

https://study.com/academy/lesson/understanding-the-center-of-mass-center-of-gravity.html

Apollo 13 Mission report

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a13/A13_MissionReport.pdf