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Post by Jason Thompson on Sept 19, 2007 17:49:05 GMT -4
The LM on Apollo 13 was supposed to support two men for about 48 hours, correct? Two EVAs on the lunar surface. In the event it ended up being used to support three men for about 82 hours. My question is why did the Aquariius carry about 2.5 times the required amount of oxygen? It wasn't needed for fuel cells, because the LM was battery powered. Was it simply for redundancy and safety purposes in case of unexpected cabin puncture or problems with the mission requiring the crew to spend longer in the LM than the nominal timeline allowed?
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Post by JayUtah on Sept 19, 2007 17:57:09 GMT -4
Extra repressurization cycles, if necessary. And yes, also to compensate for leakage in case of puncture.
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Sept 19, 2007 17:57:29 GMT -4
Was it due to the way they depressurised to vacuum before each EVA by simply venting the atmosphere overboard and then repressurised afterwards from stored O2?
I imagine that the stored oxygen was lighter than the pump required to stow the onboard air into a tank, and had the advantage of giving the LM some emergency lifeboat capacity.
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Post by JayUtah on Sept 19, 2007 18:03:16 GMT -4
It is exactly that pumping equipment was heavier that simply adding oxygen to the tank for the repress.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Sept 19, 2007 18:03:44 GMT -4
I'd say exactly that, the LM's air was just let out of the ship when they depressurized, that's a large waste of oxygen compared to what they used on 13.
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Post by JayUtah on Sept 19, 2007 18:04:27 GMT -4
Actually that's one of my interview questions: why do you think the space shuttle airlock doesn't have a vacuum pump? Answer: because it's cheaper in terms of mass just to provide oxygen for several extra represses.
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Post by Jason Thompson on Sept 21, 2007 5:04:05 GMT -4
Thanks. That's what I thought.
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