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NASA Ed Smili’s crew head and his team in April 1970 to the jury shaving a solution to clean the carbon dioxide from the air in the unit of the Apollo Moon 13. | Credit: Mississippi State University Archive
It was about one in the morning, four hours after the explosion was torn across the APOLLO 13 spacecraft on its way to the moon, when Ed Smili realized that they had to do something about carbon dioxide. What happened next Now the history of space floorsIt involves how to contain a square connection in a round hole.
Smile, who was the head of the NASA crew department at that time, died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 95. Death came nearly 55 years old To the next day, he and his team discovered how to combine spacecraft, sock, a plastic bag, braid cards, and adhesive tape to clean the air for him Space Pioneers Jim Loville, Farid Hayes And Jack Swigrett during the Earth’s Earth trip.
“I think this was 15 minutes of fame,” said Smili in 1999 An interview with NASA historian. “If you read the book and look at the movie [“Apollo 13“]It seems that I did all of this. I went back and looked at the list of the people I identified, and there may be 60 people involved in one way or another. “
Inside the lunar unit APOLLO 13, the “Mail box” width, which is a solution to clean the carbon dioxide from the air, which built the astronauts using the driving hydroxide unit in the form of a cubic shape and its team from more than 60 NASA. | Credit: NASA
Anxiety was that carbon dioxide that is exhaled by astronauts would reach high enough concentrations to be fatal if not cleaned from air.
Related to: APollo 13: Facts about the mission of the moon near NASA
the Apollo The spacecraft had two areas where the crew lived, and each of them was built by different contractors. Inside the command unit, the Carbon dioxide washing device (Or lithium hydroxide box, as it was technically known) was in a cubic shape. In the unit of the moon, which Apollo 13 As a crew survival boat, washing was cylindrical.
Initially, SMYLIE believed that the solution could be simple as continuing to operate the cleaning devices in the command unit and operate the hoses to redirect the cleaning window to the moon unit. It would have succeeded, if the driving unit was not needed to close it to reserve the energy to re -enter the atmosphere (the command unit was designed only to return to land connected).
After working with others to reach the basic concept, SMYLIE and his team needed to make sure he would work.
“I called both Downey and Kennedy [Space Center] “He asked some boxes to be sent so that we can test it,” said SMYLIE, who refers to the American RockWell site, a NASA contractor in the command unit. [NASA’s contractor for the lunar module] A plane rented, I think, North America did, and had a fleet, and we had that afternoon. “
After learning that their temporary repair was working as intended, they needed to reach how to tell the APollo 13 crew how to build the so -called “mailbox” in space.
“We got TK,” said SMYLIE, referring to MattinglyWho was appointed up to three days before the mission to fly with Lovell and Haise, but he was subjected to Germany. “TK was busy doing other things, and he appointed [fellow astronaut] Tony England To work with us to develop procedures to send them to the crew on how to build this thing. “
Although the solution that was classified as the jury seemed complicated, SMYLIE said it was “clear and direct.”
“Although we got a lot of advertising for that and [President Richard] Even Nixon mentioned our names, I always argued that this was because that was one [problem] You can understand. No one really understood the difficult things they were doing. Everyone can understand a candidate. “
The other Deke Slayton Air operations director appears in the APOLLO 13 control room, the initial model “Mail Box” designed by the head of the crew systems Ed Smily and his team. | Credit: NASA
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Robert Edwin “Ed” was born on December 25, 1929, at his ancestral farm in Lincoln Province, Mississippi. Sugged in the navy before The attendance of the Mississippi State UniversityWhere he obtained a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1952 and 1956, respectively. After a year, he obtained a master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He was appointed as an engineer by Douglas aircraft company (Today, Boeing), working on a DC-8, as well as how to air The fastest transportation means And maintain the thermal control of the Skybolt missile. He joined NASA in 1962 as head of the Department of Life Systems and then Head of the Environmental Control Systems Branch at the District Space Vehicle Center (today, Johnson Space Center) In Houston.
For more than a decade that begins in 1962, SMYLIE held the position of Assistant Head to support APOLLO, Acting Head of the crew systems department. In 1973, he moved to Washington, DC, where he was at the NASA headquarters, the deputy assistant official for aviation and space technology, followed by the Acting Assistant official, then the assistant official to track space and data systems.
SMYLIE, 18, concluded with NASA as deputy director and agency’s director Godard Space Flight Center In Greenbelt, Maryland. After leaving NASA, SMYLIE held executive positions with RCA, General Electric, Grumman and Miter Corporation.
To serve him in the space program, especially his role in saving the Apollo 13 crew, Simili was benefiting from Presidential Freedom Medal And the great moments of Globalspecc in engineering. It was also provided with an exceptional service medal, NASA, the distinguished service medal and the distinguished driving medal.
Smiley has preceded his 41 -year -old wife, Caroline, his brother John, Rabib and his ex -wife, June. He survived three children, two children Caroline, 12 grandson and 15 grandchildren.
He follows Collectspace.com on Facebook And x in @Collectspace. Copyright 2025 COLECTSPACE.COM. All rights reserved.
