Apollo 13 got cold in space?

Question

While watching Apollo 13 the movie I got confused as to how the inside of spacecraft would drop temprature in outerspace.

Knowing that even spacesuits face the problem of dissipating heat generated by the wearing astronaught (a vaccume is a perfect insulator), how can one explain that a capsule containing an entire crew would drop below freezing?

Wouldn't the heat radiated away in infared be overcome by direct sunlight on the pod in space?

Answer 1

As an interesting side note, Jim Lovell said in his book that if they stayed still long enough, their body heat would form a cocoon of warm air around them. Warm air doesn't rise in space, since there is no difference in the "weight" of warm air vs. cold, and there was very little movement of the air in the CM, with everything shut down as much as possible. He also said even a slight movement would disturb it, so it was hard to stay still long enough to get it to form.

Answer 2

The heating of the spacecraft was almost entirely an internal process. The electronic systems generated an awful lot of heat that had to be dissipated through a coolant system. The exterior of the spacecraft was given a highly reflective coating to reject the vast majority of the heat from direct sunlight, or else this would simply have added more heat to a system that was already having to be actively cooled.

Shutting down the electronics removed the biggest heat source from the spacecraft. The crew wouldn't generate anywhere near the heat that the electronics did, and most of the heat from the sun never reached the inside of the cabin, being reflected by the shiny exterior of the spacecraft. The problem was made worse when the crew put up the window shades to get some darkness so they could sleep more easily. All that did was further reduce the heat from the sun that could get into the cabin. The cooling system was still in use, however, because they still had some systems, such as communications, active, and they still needed to be cooled to prevent them from overheating and shutting down.

The cabin never actually dropped below freezing, but it did become very uncomfortable for the crew.

A spacesuit has a different problem, because it encloses the astronaut so closely and the astronaut's body heat has nowhere else to go, not being surrounded by a relatively large circulating atmosphere as in the spacecraft.

Answer 3

In addition to what tham153 said--the Apollo, like other spacecraft, and the International Space station--is designed to lose as much heat as possible. the reason, bsides what you pointed out yourself, is that it's much easier to run a heating unit than to try to dissipate excess heat by radiating it into space--where isthe onlyplace you can get rid of it.

So--with no heat going, space vehicles tend to get cold. Normally, f course, that's not a problem. But the Apollo had to conserve power--and turning the heaters off as much as possible was one way to do it.

Answer 4

Gary H and Chris M have this. i'm going to upload my 2 cents. The "bitter chilly of outer area" is a drained previous cliche. in fact, temperature is a property of count. the place there is not any count, there is not any warmth, nor chilly. area isn't rather thoroughly without count however the density is so low (i think of the conventional is approximately one hydrogen molecule according to cubic meter) that it may besides be. subsequently "area" is neither warm nor chilly. like the vacuum in a vacuum bottle, it only insulates. issues IN area get warm, or chilly, counting on whether or no longer they're close to a radiating warmth source, whether or no longer they have an inner warmth source, and how nicely they take up and/or radiate warmth. With an insulating vacuum everywhere in the only way an merchandise can the two %. up warmth or lose that's thru radiation. Apollo 13 have been given chilly ony because of the fact all the electronics have been close all the way down to shop skill. The spacecraft exchange into designed to realize a cushty equilibrium temperature yet in basic terms with the kit working. yet another factor approximately Apollo 13: you have observed interior the movie... i think of it exchange into shortly earlier Swiggert have been given the request to instruct the cryo stir swap... a line approximately "fish fry roll." This (like multiple the in-venture talk interior the movie) exchange into precise terminology: it refers back to the spacecraft "rolling" slowly on its long axis because it travels between earth and moon, so as that warmth picked up via an factor dealing with the sunlight ought to then be radiated away whilst that side exchange into dealing with removed from the sunlight. in addition, the commute generally orbits with its shipment doors open and dealing with the Earth - that's for warmth administration. warmth administration is a significant difficulty for spacecraft or perhaps with the cliche approximately "bitter chilly" the undertaking isn't continually the thank you to stay heat. from time to time the undertaking is the thank you to stay cool whilst there is not any good thank you to offload the warmth and you're in photograph voltaic far greater suitable than we get in the international. 0 kelvin, absolute 0, is -460 ranges F, -273 ranges C. Google calculator will try this and multiple different conversions for you. merely variety "0 kelvin in ranges C" into Google seek, for example.