[AR] Re: CO2 (was Re: Re: ADN Q?)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 19:42:06 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 10 Jul 2019, Craig Fink wrote:
Given that quite small percentages of CO2 are toxic, they'd have had to
do a lot of venting, and they didn't have that much oxygen to spare.
If the Command Module lost it's Oxygen Tank on the way back, after the Lunar
Module had been disposed of, what would the Astronauts been breathing?
The CM oxygen tank was intact throughout, but it didn't hold enough for
the whole trip back, just a few hours' worth for reentry. The SM oxygen
tanks were the ones lost. Fortunately, the LM tanks held enough oxygen to
support a couple of days of operation with several cabin depressurizations
and two or three strenuous moonwalks by two guys, so they had adequate
oxygen, *provided* they didn't waste very much.
As has been mentioned many times in connection with Apollo 13, having the
SM die on the way *back*, with the LM gone, would have been unsurvivable.
(In fact, a dead SM had been thought unsurvivable, period, which is why so
many of Apollo 13's procedures were desperate improvisions developed under
intense time pressure -- if survival is impossible you don't need to have
procedures prepared for it.)
Henry
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