Spacelog Apollo 8

Roger. Got some information for you on this PTC that we'll be going to right after this next P23 exercise. We'd like you this time to try the nose north attitude, that's pitch of 180, and a yaw of 315, and also we'd like to give another look at this mode free type of PTC and we think maybe we'll get a little bit of spin stabilization if we try it at 0.3 degrees per second on the roll rate rather than 0.1. So if you figure on doing that at 124:30 we'll see what kind of information we can get out of it.

Okay. You know what I think of that, don't you? I'll be happy to do it, but I think it's playing games.

Roger, Frank, you're burning right now 1.4 pounds per hour with attitude hold in pitch and yaw. We're kind of interested to see if 0.3 degrees per second will reduce your RCS usage due to spin stabilization.

Yes, I know. I predict that it will not.

Okay.

Jerry, I'm a little concerned about the temperature. We're getting kind of warm in here, and also the evaporator outlet temperature is up around 45 degrees. Do you have any trend that we're getting less efficient operation of the radiators?

Frank, EECOM says everything looks nominal down here. You might try a change in your cabin temperature heat exchanger there.

No, we don't have the fans on, but what we have done is put up a window shade. That seems to help it. We've been getting a lot more sun in the cabin this way.

Roger. We'll keep a sharp eye on things and keep you posted.

Roger. I don't mind playing games because, you guys have been very nice in the five and a half days. If you want to play games in the next half hour, we'll play.

Roger, Frank.

Jim is trying this set with the eye relief optics so we can give you some information on that.

Okay.

I think it would be very difficult to extrapolate anything that you are getting out of this bit business to a LM-command module combination, because the spacecraft handles quit a bit different just with the change of fuel load, including the difference in drifting off and roll.

Roger, Frank. We just got finished discussing that, too. We agree with your point of view on that one. I think this is more of a curiosity thing than anything at all.

I think it's fine. No sweat. We don't have anything else to do here for about another 10 hours.

Okay.

Jerry, what I'm kind of curious about is the fuel usage. Now with P23 and what we were doing, we have a lot more fuel.

Jim, we'll take a look at that fuel usage bit. Right now, the trend looks like it is getting better as we would expect with a lighter weight.

We'll try to get a little more definitive for you here.

Okay.

We really—we shouldn't complain about the fuel usage on that SPS engine though, because we're sure getting a lot of miles per gallon out of it.

Roger, Frank. Frank, we'll enter you in the Shell road test on that.

Yes, we don't have any TCP in it, or what is that, TCP? Yes. That's the problem. If we'd had that, we would have probably used only half the fuel.

Oh, you mean Platformate?

That's right, Platformate.

If you will get the people to spread out one of those banners around the target area, we'll try to break it, you know, and coast through it.

Okay. We'll call some of the paper companies and see if they can find a roll big enough.

It won't take a big roll, just about 30 feet.

Roger.

Onboard NAV.

Tell the doctors that we put William to sleep.

Roger. You won't leave any scars will you?

No. No, he's got his tape recorder with him.

Bill said to call Valerie and have her to rewind the tape recorder—his tape recorder at home.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

I hate to tell you this, Frank, because Jim probably won't even be able to wear his COMM carrier anymore, but that last set of marks put your state vector right on top of the MSFN state vector.

Come off that, Jerry. Come on; you promised.

I'll get you that bottle of brandy when I get home, Jerry.

Maybe we can get him to go to PROGRAM 01 again today, too.

Roger. That sounds good.

Apollo 8, Houston. Also, on the flight plan for 124:30, we would like for you to run an O₂ purge on the fuel cells.

Okay.

Hey, Jerry. We were going over the checklist on entry here, you know?

Roger, Frank.

I've got a question. Is John Harpold around?

Roger. He is listening.

John, I can't remember. Is the lift vector up head-down or —

Touché.

You might note for the people at MIT that the next series of stars will be shot by the master navigator with a space helmet on and long eye relief eyepieces.

Roger. That ought to cut his speed down a little bit.

Right.

Frank, while you are talking about the entry checklist, this cold soak—have you decided exactly where you want to do it there prior to entry

Well, I understood that EECOM talked that over with Bill, and we do it 1 hour prior to entry. We'll do it wherever you say is the best.

Okay. One hour is fine. It's just a matter of finding time in the time line to do it.

I think we can initiate it 1 hour before SEP.

Okay. Fine. Sounds like a winner.

Really got all zeroes with that helmet on.

Roger. We just noticed that.

Jim's going to leave the helmet off now for the rest of them, I think; it gets a little anoxic in there. These helmets don't have face plates, and we have a difficult time breathing with that on.

Okay. Jerry, that completes the P23. Did you have something else you want us to do now? You wanted to check on something from the last set.

Roger, Frank. We need to get some numbers that we weren't able to copy down here. Stand by just one. Frank, on your first P23, we missed three marks on star number 2. We missed mark number 3 trunnion.

Okay. Three trunnion is 05650.

Okay, 05650. Then star number 1, mark 2. We need the trunnion on that one, too.

04216.

And on star number 1, mark 3, the DELTA-R and DELTA-V.

DELTA-R is 00006, DELTA-V 00001.

Roger. Four balls 6 and four balls 1. Okay. Frank, your PTC attitude is pitch 180, yaw 315, and roll rate 0.3 degrees per second. The reason for wanting to point it north is not because we are concerned at all about any changes due to venting, there's been, as we can tell, no effects on your trajectory by venting. We just want to try out that direction on it.

That's fine. We are going to stay in for about two more seconds while Jim takes the pictures through the sextant for the optics people.

Okay, Frank. And then, also, we are looking for a fuel cell O₂ purge when you get a chance.

That's right. At—I got the word now; it's supposed to be at 124:30.

Right.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. For your P37 that's coming up that you are going to run, use a midcourse 7 time of 144:46. Also just a little note here, the trajectory is looking so good, it looks like you can make the corridor without even making a midcourse 7.

Roger. 144:46 for the P37.

Affirmative.

Thank you.

Jerry, this is Jim.

Go ahead, Jim.

We are going to set this up for the normal PTC mode for a few minutes until Frank gets through with the—another step of the call.

Roger, Jim. When the time is auspicious, would you shift the BIOMED switch over to left side?

I think we ought to shift it over right now.

Okay. No, they say hold it up for a little while.

… so you can see, the same data that Dr. Berry got on me in Gemini VII is also good for Frank on Apollo 8.

Houston, Apollo 8. —

Apollo 8, Houston.

Do you see that PROGRAM ALARM we got when we went through P37, 1302?

Affirmative.

I'll run through it again and see what happens here.

Roger. We're monitoring.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Looks like you loaded the wrong time in P37, You should load 144:46 for your midcourse time; looks like you loaded 146:46.