13 Technical Mistakes made in Apollo 13.

[Dave]

Originally published in the New York Times on Monday, July 24, 1995


13 Technical Mistakes in Apollo 13

From the introduction of the article: "Christopher K. Land, a space-stations engineer at the Johnson Space Center, has circulated on the Internet a list of the technical errors that he, his co-workers and other have spotted, including the fact that James Lovell actually drove a blue Corvette, no a red one."

"The producer of 'Apollo 13,' Brian Gazer, said people who nit-pick movies are a familiar type. 'These are the kinds of people who sit in the front of the class and have their hands up all the time,' he said. As for the list, 'I'm not sure they're right about most of this stuff,' Mr. Grazer said, though he stopped short of saying that Johnson Space people were wrong."

1. Watch the Paint

The paint pattern for the Saturn V in the film is not accurate. On the lower half of the first stage, the original test model (which never flew) had black-and-white vertical stripes topped with a ring of black paint. All the launched Saturn V's had the vertical stripes topped with a wider ring of white paint. The movie version omits the ring of paint, and continues to use the stripes.

2. Early Worm

The distinctive NASA "worm" letter logo is seen on a glass window when the astronauts are climbing into their spacesuits. The logo was not developed until 1976. The men of Apollo 13 would have dressed to the old emblem.

3. False Start

The engines of the Saturn V were started at "T minus nine" seconds, not at "T minus zero" as the movie had it. (The hold-down bolts are released at "T minus zero.") This change was made in the film, apparently, to add drama.

4. Synchronized Swing

The gantry arms for the Saturn V--the support arms that fall away just before liftoff--are released in unison, not one at a time as shown in the film.

5. No Air Bags

The sudden jolt at the separation of the first-stage rocket was completely unexpected, not a routine occurrence as portrayed in the movie. During the actual mission, small retro-rockets on the top of the first stage fired one second too early. This is what threw the astronauts forward as shown in the movie. Truth be told, the real Jim Lovell had several marks on his helmet from banging into the switch guards.

6. Phase Out

The film shows the moon changing phases several times during Apollo 13's four day journey. There was only one phase, and it was a waning half moon. How come? Apollo 13 was scheduled to land on the left side of the moon and landing was always planned for sunrise, so that long shadows could aid navigation. (Sunrise on the moon, of course, occurs only every 28 days.

7. Night Shift

Upon passing behind the moon, the movie astronauts lose communication with the earth and enter darkness simultaneously. But the far side of the moon and the dark side of the moon are the same only every 28 days. This wasn't that day.

8. Try An Abacus

If you study what's written on Tom Hanks's worksheet, he is doing addition and subtraction to calculate the spacecraft's orientation angles. The engineers are asked to check his arithmetic, and one uses a slide rule. Anyone handy with a slide rule will tell you it is not used for addition and subtraction.

9. Theory of Relativity

As the film astronauts near the moon, there is a shot (done with models) that shows the sun, the moon and the Apollo spacecraft. Proportionally, the spacecraft appears to be the size of Australia, and traveling at roughly 25 million miles an hour--about a thousand times faster than an actual Apollo craft.

10. Stars Gazing

The astronauts point out the Sea of Tranquillity as they pass over it. The image in the movie is actually Hadley's Rille (it looks like a river), the landing site of Apollo 15.

11. Fully Impossible

A full moon appears out one window of the lunar module on the way back to earth. Out of a window on the other side, there is a view of the full earth. Full moon, full earth--that would be possible only if the sun were between the moon and the earth (it's not), or if the module were somewhere near Venus (it wasn't).

12. Protractors Ready?

At one point, the ship is said to be rotating at 2.5 degrees per second. The view out the window shows the earth moving past at about five times that rate. For comparison, the second hand on a clock rotates at 6 degrees per second.

13. A Silent Vacuum

Outside the capsule, the propulsion jets are roaring. In the vacuum of space, however, propulsion jets do not make any noise whatsoever--unless you are very, very close to them, in which case you would be a cinder.

[padders]

hehe i love nit picks, like the slide rule one hehe.

[little star]

Interesting...

Often, even "true" sci-fi movies contain many bits that are technically incorrect. Sometimes scientific fact is overlooked to add drama, or facilitate the story-telling in some other way. Other times, the writers, etc. just screw up!

It's sometimes good to point out these errors because so many people seem to get their basic understanding of science from movies and other forms of entertainment.

Scifi is a particularly thought-provoking genre (in my opinion, anyway). It's a great way to get interested in science and be entertained at the same time. Of course, it's good when that leads to further investigation...

little star :star:

[ray gower]

Considering the enormity of the problems faced on Apollo Thirteen and the scope the film makers had to add drama by revising history a little for additional drama, the nits are extremely small.

Especially when compared to other 'true story' films like U571, or Memphis Belle