The 1995 film Apollo 13 , directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks (Lovell), Bill Paxton (Haise), and Kevin Bacon (Swigert), immortalized the mission. It won two Academy Awards and is studied in business schools as a model of crisis leadership.
The LM’s square lithium hydroxide canisters were turning grey and failing. The CM had plenty of spare round canisters, but they didn’t fit the square hole. In Mission Control, engineers led by Ed Smylie (who had built a simulator in his car trunk) instructed the crew to build a "mailbox." Using plastic bags, duct tape, and a flight manual cover, Haise and Lovell jury-rigged an adapter that perfectly married the round canister to the square slot. Carbon dioxide levels dropped instantly.
The problem? The LM was not equipped for three people. The carbon dioxide scrubbers were designed for two. The water supply was limited. The cabin was freezing (dropping to near 38°F / 3°C) to conserve power.
The ingenuity displayed over the next 86 hours remains a textbook example of engineering triage. Inside the LM, designed for a short hop on the Moon, the CO₂ levels began to rise perilously. The lithium hydroxide canisters that scrubbed carbon dioxide were square—designed for the command module. The LM’s system used round canisters. A mismatch meant death by asphyxiation. On the ground, engineers led by Ed Smylie threw together a makeshift adapter using only materials known to be onboard: a plastic bag, a cardboard cover from a flight manual, a roll of gray duct tape, and a suit hose. They radioed up the instructions. Astronaut Fred Haise, with the steady hands of a surgeon, assembled the “mailbox” in zero gravity. It worked.
Gene Kranz, the legendary Flight Director, quickly realized the mission profile had changed. "We are no longer doing a lunar landing," he famously stated. "We are trying to get these guys home."
Apollo 13 |best|
The 1995 film Apollo 13 , directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks (Lovell), Bill Paxton (Haise), and Kevin Bacon (Swigert), immortalized the mission. It won two Academy Awards and is studied in business schools as a model of crisis leadership.
The LM’s square lithium hydroxide canisters were turning grey and failing. The CM had plenty of spare round canisters, but they didn’t fit the square hole. In Mission Control, engineers led by Ed Smylie (who had built a simulator in his car trunk) instructed the crew to build a "mailbox." Using plastic bags, duct tape, and a flight manual cover, Haise and Lovell jury-rigged an adapter that perfectly married the round canister to the square slot. Carbon dioxide levels dropped instantly. Apollo 13
The problem? The LM was not equipped for three people. The carbon dioxide scrubbers were designed for two. The water supply was limited. The cabin was freezing (dropping to near 38°F / 3°C) to conserve power. The 1995 film Apollo 13 , directed by
The ingenuity displayed over the next 86 hours remains a textbook example of engineering triage. Inside the LM, designed for a short hop on the Moon, the CO₂ levels began to rise perilously. The lithium hydroxide canisters that scrubbed carbon dioxide were square—designed for the command module. The LM’s system used round canisters. A mismatch meant death by asphyxiation. On the ground, engineers led by Ed Smylie threw together a makeshift adapter using only materials known to be onboard: a plastic bag, a cardboard cover from a flight manual, a roll of gray duct tape, and a suit hose. They radioed up the instructions. Astronaut Fred Haise, with the steady hands of a surgeon, assembled the “mailbox” in zero gravity. It worked. The CM had plenty of spare round canisters,
Gene Kranz, the legendary Flight Director, quickly realized the mission profile had changed. "We are no longer doing a lunar landing," he famously stated. "We are trying to get these guys home."
