Apollo 13 (not the movie)?

Question

What happened on the appolo 13 mission, what went wrong and how did they fix it?
The real thing NOT the movie

Answer 1

The movie was fairly accurate, despite some small parts of invented dialogue. It was based on a book written by the commander of the mission.
Basically, it went like this: A malfunction before the spacecraft was launched caused exposed wiring in one of the oxygen tanks. When electrical power was switched on (to "stir" the tanks) a spark ignited the oxygen, blowing off one of the side panels of the craft and damaging the other oxygen tank. Oxygen was not only used for breathing, but for making electricity, so that's why they had to turn so many of the systems off in the spacecraft to last long enough to get back. They couldn't repair the damage in space, so they cut their mission short and came home early.
The name of the book is "Apollo 13" ("Lost Moon" in the older edition) by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

Answer 2

NASA personnel are people too. They are not robots. In fact, if you read the book "Lost Moon", which was later renamed "Apollo 13", which is much more detailed than the movie, and much more accurate, you will find lots of humor. One of the funnier things that happened was that the Grumman Corporation, builder of the Lunar Module that the astronauts took shelter in on the way back from the moon, sent a bogus bill to the North American Aviation corporation for the cost of 250,000 miles of towing. The astronauts themselves were a bunch of nutballs who used practical jokes and other silliness to cope with the stresses of training. The book "The Right Stuff" chronicles a lot of this activity. And in reality, a two hour movie only highlights the major parts of a trip to the Moon and back that took almost a week. Much of the humor tossed between the ground and the astronauts was to keep up their spirits, break the tension, and pass the time. Imagine sitting in your car with two other people for a week, no showers, no private bathroom, no privacy at all. That's about all the room they had. You might get a little silly too, but in a highly professional way. Buzz Aldrin actually joked on the Moon as he was closing the door from outside the lunar lander that he better make sure not to lock the door on his way out.

Answer 3

An electrical malfunction in a stirring fan used to measure the quantity remaining in an oxygen tank caused the tank to explode. The film was mostly accurate, the largest deviation being the setup for re-entry. In the film the capsule was shaking violently around; in reality the burn was very smooth but the precision required was amazingly high so everyone was sitting on eggshells at the time. Also, when the tank exploded, the actual words to NASA were, "Um, Houston, I think we have a problem here," and not the more assertive or panicked, "Houston, we have a problem!" that appeared in the film.

Answer 4

I think the source of the problem was a test performed long before launch that was done unknowingly with too high a voltage so that insulation got burned off a switch inside the oxygen tank (this was when it was empty) that went undetected.

When they did that "stir" something shorted out and the tank exploded and blew a whole panel off the service module. They weren't able to fix the damage. Thank goodness the LM was undamaged and they could live off that.

Answer 5

The film was apparently quite close to the transcripts of the Apollo mission. They had the same problem as depicted in the movie (ruptured oxygen tank?), they did not fix the broken tank. They survived it the same way as in the movie, by re-modelling a CO2 scrubber from parts scavenged from other machinery.
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Answer 6

Like others said Ithink the movie was qute accurate.

The real Jim Lovell had a bit part in the movie, he is a navy officer who shakes hands with Hanks (playing Jim Lovell) on the aircraft carrier after recovery.