Apollo 13 Minute Podcast Minute 079: All about the Sequencing
“How many amps do we have to play with?” asks an engineer.
“Barely enough to run this coffee pot for nine hours, ” replies John Aaron. “Go,” says Aaron to his microphone.
“Yeah, Ken Mattingly just got here,” says the voice on the other end of the headset.
“Copy,” says Aaron, turning to the engineer. “He’s here.”
“They’ve been losing heat since the accident,” says John Young, “They’re going to start getting a lot of water condensation on the control panels.”
“Ken,” says John Aaron, as they walk toward the Command Module simulator, “Glad you’re here. Know what’s going on?”
“John’s brought me up to speed,” says Ken. “What do we have left in the batteries?”
“We don’t really know,” says Aaron.
“Well, we’ve got to get started on some shortcuts for power-up,” says Ken.
“You know how short?” asks Aaron.
“Well, it’s all in the sequencing, John, “says Ken. “Let’s skip whatever we don’t absolutely need and turn things on in the right order. Maybe –”
“I agree,” says Aaron.
“Have you started on a procedure?” asks Ken.
“Well, the engineers have tried, ” replies Aaron, “but , I mean, – – it’s your ship. We’ve gotta get you in there.”
“Okay, ” says Ken. He sees Frank, the other engineer. “Frank,” he says, “I need the sim cold and dark, give me the exact same conditions they’ve got in there now. And I need the present status of every instrument.”
“You’ve got it,” says Frank.
“I need a flashlight,” says Ken. Someone hands him a large yellow flashlight. “That’s not what they have up there. Don’t give me anything they don’t have onboard.”
“Let’s get this show on the road,” says John Young to the other engineers. “Put him in space, fellas!”
Back on the real LM, Lovell looks at a circuit breaker panel. “Okay Houston, ” says Lovell “The quad heater circuit breakers are open.” He throws more switches.
“Copy that,” replies Capcom.
IN THIS MINUTE:
Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell
Bill Paxton as Fred Haise
Loren Dean as John Aaron
Gary Sinese as Ken Mattingly
Ben Marley as John Young