NASA Photo ID: AS13-62-9004        File Name: 10075508.jpg
Film Type: 70mm                    Date Taken: 04/14/70
Title: Interior view of "mail box" for purging carbon dioxide from Lunar Module
Description:
Interior view of the Apollo 13 Lunar Module (LM) during the trouble-plagued 
journey back to Earth. This photograph show some of the temporary hose 
connections and apparatus which were necessary when the three astronauts 
moved form the Command Module to use the LM as a "lifeboat". Astronaut John 
L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot, is on the right. On the left, an 
astronauts holds in his right hand the feed water bag from the Portable
Life  Support System (PLSS). It is connected to a hose (in center) from the
Lunar  Topographic (Hyson) camera. in the background is the "mail box", a 
jerry-rigged arrangement which the Apollo 13 astronauts built to use the 
Command Module lithium hydroxide canisters to purge carbon dioxide from the 
Lunar Module. Lithium hydroxide is used to scrub CO2 from the spacecraft's 
atmosphere. Since there was a limited amount of lithium hydroxide in the
LM,  this arrangement was rigged up to utilize the canisters from the CM.
The  "mail box" was designed and tested on the ground at the Manned
Spacecraft  Center before it was suggested to the Apollo 13 crewmen.
Because of the  explosion of one of the oxygen tanks in the Service Module,
the three crewmen  had to use the LM as a "lifeboat".      

Subject terms:
AIR PURIFICATION                        
APOLLO 13                               
APOLLO PROJECT                          
CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL                  
COMPONENTS                              
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS                    
LUNAR MODULE                            
ONBOARD ACTIVITIES                      
SPACECRAFT CABIN ATMOSPHERES            

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