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?

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 —

Jerry, I'm beginning to worry up here.