Spacelog Apollo 8

Okay. And in reference to the OMNI versus the high gain, it looks like we can live with the OMNI antennas here for several more hours, if you would like to delete the use of the high gain.

Okay. Goodnight, Houston.

Okay. Before you pitch your eyeballs there, we'd like to terminate the battery charge.

I knew you guys would get me.

Got you.

Okay. The battery A charge is terminated at 37.3 volts.

Okay. Thank you.

Standing by for your systems status.

Okay. We're pulling that together now.

How are the PU valve and SPS line temps looking?

Okay, I'll test that.

Systems look okay to you Houston?

Okay, Apollo 8. All the systems—giving a quick look around the room—look real fine. You've got an RCS quad update on the quantity, so you have that information. The SPS oxidizer feed-line temperature and the fuel temperature are both at 73 degrees. The cryo profile is running right on the line: Battery A—our calculations have 39.63 amp hours. Battery B, 37.94, and battery Charlie, 38.46. The COMM continues to be running ahead of predictions in quality and circuit margins. Everything else looks like it's real fine.

Roger. Do you expect to have a low bit rate voice on the DSE off the OMNI's at lunar distances?

That's negative on DSE off the OMNI's. Not looking forward to that much improvement.

Roger. We need about a 30-foot dish, I figure, for that on the spacecraft.

Roger. It runs up the fuel required for PTC, though, Bill.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston, Apollo 8.

Okay. I know you're trying to be quiet, so I'll just read up some information to you. One of the things that we just turned up that might give you some confidence, if you lose oxygen cryo tank now: you have 80 pounds remaining now at CM/SM SEP. The limiting factor on single tank operation right now is the hydrogen tank which has a positive margin at CM/SM SEP, assuming our standard profile gives you about 143 hours. So it looks like you are over the hill on those. Notice that you're flying in the rate 2 position for you BMAGS which is fine. Only make sure that you still were maintaining a PTC attitude. Looks like you're pretty close to it.

Roger. We are flying PTC, and I was wondering why it was going out of the deadband; now I know. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

That's what happens when you let Anders fly. He's asleep so he can't defend himself.

Roger. But we've got it on tape though.

Good. They're both conked out; how about just filling me in on some news, and I'll keep quiet just to give me some words on what's going on in the world.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Loud and clear, Apollo 8.

Understand.

We transmitted to the spacecraft as per CAP COM and they acknowledged our transmission.

Apollo 8. Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Okay. We got back together again. You're loud and clear. We've been reading you. We have a problem down here on the ground getting our signal from MCC out to remote site.

Roger. Understand.

Apollo 8. Houston. I've got a ball score for you. It was Oakland 41, Kansas City 6 is the final score. That's 41 to 6, Oakland. We're trying to get some news releases over here for you. I suspect we're going to find that the staged TV show was probably the biggest news of the day.

I'm sorry that the TV lens broke down.

Well, we're working on that some more. I'm not sure that the whole thing is lost yet. It appears that our problem is one where the light intensity which is sensed by our light meter in there is picking up an average field which is much larger than the earth, and so it's sensing a great deal of deep space environment which is dark, and we're suspicious that this is probably opening up the lens aperture as wide as it will go, and then when you point the camera at the earth while the earth is only filling about 3 degrees of cone angle, whereas lens takes in 9. So it looks like you're probably just saturating the tube. Now we're playing around now with some —

We just lost you again, Houston.

Say again.

I just lost your last transmission; you were clipped.

0kay. Did you get any of my comments about the TV tube?

Roger. Got them.

Okay. What I—what we've got in mind here is that we are looking at some of the lenses you have on board for cameras, and we are going to see if one of them can possibly be used to attenuate some of this light so that you will be able to take one of these pictures, and we are running some tests now, and we'll let you know about those. I also have a maneuver PAD that I need to read up to you whenever it's convenient.

Let me get a pencil. Be fine right now.

Okay.