Apollo 13 EC Notes

This is my makeshift Cornell notes.

QUESTIONS

1. Why was this Jim Lovell's last mission?

2. What went wrong BEFORE the launch?

3. What went wrong at the beginning the flight to the moon?

4. What happened because of that?

5. Did anything bad happen to the crew members physically?

6. What type of filter breaks?

7. Because of the lack of energy able to be used, what did the crew have to do to get back to earth?

8. What did the left-behind crew member do to help them get back to earth?

9. Did they get back safely? Describe.

10. What was the media attention to all of this?

11. How did Lovell's family react?

ANSWERS

1. He wanted his last mission to be where he could stand on the moon.

2. A lab report came back reporting that the main pilot had measles and was unfit to go into space because the worst and feverish part of it would come in transit to the moon and could possibly inhibit brain functioning, impairing the mission. Some other foreshadowing with practicing simulations with the substitute member occur as well.

3. When a routine checkup was performed, a coil blew and caused an entire tank of oxygen to combust - this limited the air supply even further.

4. The energy supply and oxygen supply are depleted so greatly that the crew has to switch to the machine intended for the descent to moon.

5. No physical injuries are obtained, but one crew member is nearly frozen because they have to conserve enough energy to get back to Earth.

6. A carbon filter breaks and causes the levels to rise a lot. Since there is no replacement filter, the people back at Houston have to come up with a makeshift filter for them out of only stuff found on the ship. They succeed, and the crew on the Odyssey makes it in time.

7. The crew has to use the moon's gravity to swing them back into the direction of earth. Houston also has to develop a sequence to start the ship meant to land on the moon (which only had enough energy and oxygen for 2 people and a simple trip from the moon back to the main ship) back up that uses as little of energy as possible and leaves enough left for the crew to steer the ship in the right direction in order to enter the atmosphere again and to deploy the parachutes.

8. He helps develop the sequence with which to turn the ship back on with the least amount of energy used, and probably boosts a little morale.

9. Yes, they returned safely. They landed pretty much in target and made it through the atmosphere, deployed the parachutes, and didn't obtain any more physical damage beyond scratches and bruises from the impact. They landed in a body of water and were rescued immediately with a helicopter.

10. At the beginning, there wasn't that much media attention- just the routine stuff, like "They're going into space again, to the moon..", and the guys in the spaceship at the beginning send a "broadcast" describing what its like in space that doesn't actually get aired. Later, the media jumps all over it and tries to keep up with all of the technical difficulties and the statistics of what has failed and the probability of them getting back, etc.

11. There was plenty of nail biting and worriedness, especially when they were due to get through the atmosphere. There was a supposed "3 minute" time limit, and Apollo 13 went over by a minute or two, which caused a LOT of panic and pain for the family. But when they came through and were visible, it was like a huge sigh of relief.

SUMMARY

A routine mission with the unlucky name of "Apollo 13" begins to go awry 3 months before departure with several kinks and foreshadowing in the film. The launch goes fine, until about a day in- things start going wrong right and left, with tanks exploding, energy leaking, and all sorts of things. The crew ends up getting back safely, but only barely. The movie is based off the book by one of the surviving astronauts, Jim Lovell.