The other Apollo spacecraft had cooling systems working. The way a cooling system works in space is by compressing the heat and radiating it. The rate of heat lost by radiation is directly proportional to the tempreture of the radiating object. The hotter the object the faster the energy radiation. By compressing the heat to a radiator, a functioning cooling system is able to throw off heat fast enough to balance heat comming in to maintain a comfortable temprature.

Quote:
"there's NO WAY they were not going to keep Apollo 13 in the Passive Thermal Roll. I understand that this was vital to prevent damage to several vital systems, including the heat shield."

And what would have done the damage? Heat.

As to the mention of two EVA suits. I know I saw three astronauts in spacesuits board the rocket. Also, regarding those spacesuits. The profile of all the Apollo flights has the astronauts removing their suits after launch and putting them back on for the landings and reentries. I have seen the films of all the crewmen donning their suits before the flights and they each have at least 3 guys with pliers and monkeywrenches and screwdrivers helping them get them on. I realize that in a weightless capsule it would be somewhat easier and with the other astronauts to help...But, if you've ever seen how cramped the Apollo capsule is you can see that removing and redressing with a hard spacesuit gives a new meaning to the word cramp. And where did they store those big bulky suits anyway? Exept for the occasional loose glove floating around I don't recall ever seeing the suits sticking out of some corner. With the extremly limited space in the ship it seems the most efficient storage place for the suits would be on the crew's bodies.

As mentioned in the initial message I suspect a covert mission. I don't think they staged an explosion. I think they may have staged an entire mission to cover a covert mission. If a covert mission, did they actually land? Possibly, possibly not. Did they bring a lander with them at all? Possibly, possibly not. Did they bring several tons of somthing else with them? Possibly,...possibly.

SAMU



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SAMU on 2001-11-04 03:40 ]</font>