Apollo 14

This is my first post asking a question so please bare with me. I just watched Apollo 13 and was curious if anyone offered the United States any help and what help if any could they offer? Would the Soviets have helped and if they did and they succeeded what would happen to the pilots and the ship itself would they be turned over immediately or "detained".
 
This is my first post asking a question so please bare with me. I just watched Apollo 13 and was curious if anyone offered the United States any help and what help if any could they offer? Would the Soviets have helped and if they did and they succeeded what would happen to the pilots and the ship itself would they be turned over immediately or "detained".

Well the only help they would be able to offer and provide would be to accept them if they landed in Soviet Union territory, probably resulting from some Charlie-foxtrot prior to reentry. Other than this eventuality, all they (and anyone else) could offer were good wishes for safe return of the astronauts. Due to highly public character of the mission, it would be very hard for USSR to detain the astronauts. They also expected the same treatment for the cosmonauts so it would be a 'quid pro quo'. They might offer them to remain in Soviet Union, promising everything, but I doubt this would be successful.
 
This is my first post asking a question so please bare with me. I just watched Apollo 13 and was curious if anyone offered the United States any help and what help if any could they offer? Would the Soviets have helped and if they did and they succeeded what would happen to the pilots and the ship itself would they be turned over immediately or "detained".
Per the Outer Space Treaty which entered into force in 1967:
Article V

States Parties to the Treaty shall regard astronauts as envoys of mankind in outer space and shall render to them all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of another State Party or on the high seas. When astronauts make such a landing, they shall be safely and promptly returned to the State of registry of their space vehicle.
So, no, the astronauts would not be detained... though I dare say it'd be quite a while until the Command Module gets sent back to the US.
 
So, no, the astronauts would not be detained... though I dare say it'd be quite a while until the Command Module gets sent back to the US.

Naturally they'd have to inspect the CM thoroughly to ensure it was not smuggling drugs or harboring prohibited insects.

Which, of course, we would have certainly done with any stray Soyuz capsules that happened to land in American territory.

Otherwise, no one - not even the USSR - was in any position to launch a rescue mission in the time remaining to Apollo 13 before its life support gave out, and even if it had, pulling off a rendezvous would have been more or less impossible even if the Soviet space program had the experience with orbital (beyond orbit) rendezvous in 1970, which of course it didn't.

That's what made the Apollo program so impressively risky. There was no chance for a rescue, no chance for a backup, if a mission was stranded in space. Not until Skylab did that possibility even come into existence.
 
Yeah. Every single Apollo Mission conducted had some type of problem with it. From the Head Colds of Apollo 7 to the CM Explosion of 13. From the loose bolt in 14 that kept triggering the LEM's Abort Programme to 11's breaking the switch to activate the LM Ascent stage engine.

Frankly, it was a miracle that 13 was the only near-fatal mission they had with that programme. And yes I am fully aware of the fatal Apollo 1 Pad Fire.
 

Cook

Banned
Frankly, it was a miracle that 13 was the only near-fatal mission they had with that programme. And yes I am fully aware of the fatal Apollo 1 Pad Fire.
You are correct, the Apollo 1 fire took place during training, not during a mission.
 
Yeah. Every single Apollo Mission conducted had some type of problem with it. From the Head Colds of Apollo 7 to the CM Explosion of 13. From the loose bolt in 14 that kept triggering the LEM's Abort Programme to 11's breaking the switch to activate the LM Ascent stage engine.

Frankly, it was a miracle that 13 was the only near-fatal mission they had with that programme. And yes I am fully aware of the fatal Apollo 1 Pad Fire.

Apollo was just an incredibly gutsy program all the way around. And lucky, too.
 
To underline the point . . .

There was, in 1970, only one other space-faring nation to begin with: The USSR.

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970, and returned back for splashdown on the 17th.

The Soviets had only one flight on the board for 1970, Soyuz 9, which launched on June 1. In mid-April, mating up of the rocket stages was likely just getting into gear. It's just not conceivable that they could have rushed Soyuz 9 to the launch pad in time to get it into space in time to be of any use.

More to the point, even if they had, what could they have done? The Soyuz rocket was barely sufficient at that time to loft the (still largely untested) 6,560 Kg Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft into low earth orbit. You could cram three cosmonauts into that early Soyuz module if you did away with full pressure suits. But since you'd need at least one cosmonaut to fly it up, you have to figure out how to get four astronauts into that capsule.

Otherwise, the only other possibility was that Soyuz 9 might deliver oxygen or batteries (assuming compatible ones could be found) to the crippled Odyssey. To do even that, however, you actually have to reach Odyssey in time. And the Soyuz rocket had no capability to reach beyond low earth orbit. The whole problem for Apollo 13 was that they were on track to run out of oxygen and power well before they ever returned to earth orbit, something still nearly 100,000 miles away when that deadline arrived. And that doesn't even get into the enormous problems of rendezvous in such a situation, which were hard enough for NASA but virtually terra incognita to the Soviets.

No, the only nation even theoretically capable of mounting a manned rescue mission was the United States itself. And the next available Saturn V, AS-509, would have needed several weeks even on a crash program to be ready for a launch.

All of which is why Apollo was such an impressively risky and gutsy program. Unlike the Shuttle (especially post-Columbia), there was never a rescue craft available for launch in time, and there was no space station to seek refuge on (not that it would have mattered for a trans-lunar expedition). It's hard to imagine NASA making the same kinds of gutsy calls it made throughout Apollo. Only the tremendous political impetus of beating the Soviets even made it possible at that stage. It was a brilliantly run program, but even so we had to catch a lot of lucky breaks along the way.

. . .

The only other thing the Soviets (or other nations) could have offered might have been communications assistance. As it turned out, NASA already had an ample ground and orbital network of systems to do the job around the globe. Had it been necessary, I suspect that the help would have been forthcoming (and accepted). The Soviets had, in fact, quietly given cooperation to NASA the previous summer during Apollo 11 by releasing Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11.
 
The Soviets had only one flight on the board for 1970, Soyuz 9, which launched on June 1. In mid-April, mating up of the rocket stages was likely just getting into gear.

Dramatic license could alter that date.

More to the point, even if they had, what could they have done?
More than you give them credit for. For a start, soyuz was designed to be flown from the ground, and docked with a target automatically. For another, they had plenty of other rocket available. The soviets also had practical experience with docking.

None of this would be of assistance to the OTL NASA plan, so for a story where the soviets did help, we'd need to force a change the NASA rescue plan. I'm not going to work out the maths for the following. I'm just going to assume it's completely ASB and live with it...

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Soviet Rescue!Apollo13

The explosion occured on the way to the moon. Early fears as to damage wre soon put to rest, but then replaced by much worse fears. The Service module and engine were largely intact, but the heatshield was not. It woudl be qie possible for the crew to make it to the moon's surface. They'd just not be able to return home.

This was considdered an unacceptable outcome, and thus NASA started to considder idead further down the slush pile, until they reached a idea based on the work of Phil Bono. He suggested that rocket exhaust gas (while not good for a rocket's structure) can be used to shield a rocket from the higher temperature plasma generated by reentry; if that rocket was basically flown backwards.

The Service Module lacks the DeltaV to break into Earth orbit, even if the Luna module is used for a Direct return burn on the far side of the moon. But could it have enough rocket fuel to protect the service module during an aerobreak manouver through the upper atmosphere?

'Damned if we know,' come the answer. The engineers could do the maths, which said teoretically yes, but had no way to test how that translated to reality. 'Possibly. Flip a coin.'

'Does anyone have any better ideas that do NOT involve certain death?' Silence. 'Well then...'

The decision is made, and the Soviets have a brown trouser moment when the Americans call them back, and say, 'Actually, now that you mention it...'

NASA doesn't need a full souz. All it needs the service module and reentry module (with three seats if you please), mounted in any way possible into any rocket, and placed into a stable orbit and attitude close to Apollo 13 - assuming it survives. Oh yes - and one more thing, it needs to have an American hatch from a Lunar lander wielded to the front, so it can serve as a docking target.

Yes we are quite serious. No we have not been drinking.

The russians (knowing how it will look if three US astronauts survive intoLEO, only to be killed by russian tardiness) move heaven and earth to get their most flight ready rocket (OTL Vostok/Kosmos 331) on the launch pad, and put together the flight team needed to do this on the fly with no preperation what so ever.

And they both pull it off by the skin of their teeth. The service module is heavily damaged by it's trip through the atmosphere, but somehow survives. The Russians launch their rescue craft, and it gets close enough for the Americans to dock on their second try, after a terrifying aborted first attempt.

Under Russian ground control they reenter in shirtsleaves, and land in Kasakstan, located by the russians two hours later. They are greeted as war heros, blessed with medals and kisses, and then flown to Moscow to meet the Premier, before being handed over to the US Ambassador at the airport.

And then six months later both nations are back to suspiciously peering at each other over the trenchtops, and over the no-mans-lad of Europe.

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And once again, yes I am aware that the last paragraph is the most realistic aspect of the entire scenario. But, you know, for fun!:D
 
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