fisher@dvinci.DEC (05/19/85)
A bit more about the problem (this is from a NASA book called something like "The Apollo Missions to the Moon". It seems that the heater's acceptable current rating had been upped, but this information had not been circulated to everyone concerned, specifically the folks concerned with the cutoff thermostat in series with the heater. It also seems that at one point, the tank was dropped, fixed back up, and then reinstalled. During a ground test, the tank was filled, and then they tried to empty it. It seemed to take to long (did the drop cause this?), so they cranked up the current in the heater to the (new) max to boil off the oxygen.. Unfortunately, the thermostat had not been upgraded to the new current rating, and when it opened, it arced and welded. None of this was noticed. During the flight, the heater was merrily doing its thing, and when the thermostat was supposed to open and cut it off, it could not. Thus overheating and explosion as mentioned in another posting. Burns UUCP: ... {decvax|allegra|ucbvax}!decwrl!rhea!dvinci!fisher ARPA: fisher%dvinci.dec@decwrl.ARPA
bnapl@burdvax.UUCP (Tom Albrecht) (05/24/85)
The PBS series "Space Flight" did a very good job in recounting the events of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. As a matter of fact, the whole series of shows has been very good; much better than that historical-romance fluff called "Space". Or was it called "Sex"?-:) -- Tom Albrecht Burroughs Corp. ...{presby|psuvax1|sdcrdcf}!burdvax!bnapl Communism is to government what astrology is to science.