Electrical Power System (CSM)

This section provides step-by-step examples and instructions how to use the Electrical Power System (EPS). Hopefully this will help users to get a better understanding and feeling how to work with the spacecraft systems. In these procedures it is assumed that the spacecraft is in a "stable condition" without flying manoeuvers with the systems in "flight configuration", for example during Trans Lunar Coast and you can use time acceleration up to 1000 so that all of the internal systems have reasonable reaction times.

CSM cryogenic tank and fuel cell check

During normal operations the cryo tanks and fuel cells should operate as descriped in the original Apollo documentation. The following procedures are from the Apollo-Soyuz test project Operations handbook reference issue (see below).

CSM fuel cell purging

To keep the fuel cells working properly, it's necessary to do fuel cell purging from time to time. Unlike shown in the original Apollo documentation below in Project Apollo it's not necessary to wait after switching the H₂ PURGE LINE switch to HTR, but to do on H₂ purging it's necessary to turn on the H₂ purge line heater. The procedures are from the Apollo-Soyuz test project Operations handbook reference issue (see below).

CSM H₂ cryogenic tank pressurization

During normal operations cryogenic hydrogen from the cryo tanks is consumed by the fuel cells, so for this procedure it is necessary that the fuel cells are turned on and all cryo tank heaters and fans are switched to AUTO. The cyro tank fans and heaters then maintain the pressure in the tanks.

• Switch to time acceleration 1000. Monitor the H₂ PRESSURE 1/2 meters, they should slowly drop to 225 psi, then increase to 260 psi and so forth.

• Switch the H₂ HEATERS 2 switch and the H₂ FANS 2 switch to OFF (center position). After a couple of hours you can see that the H₂ tank 1 gets still repressurized while the pressure in H₂ tank 2 decreases below 200 psi. You get a CRYO PRESS alarm, push the MASTER ALARM pushbutton/light to turn off the alarm. Furthermore the spacecraft consumes more hydrogen from tank 1 because of the higher pressure so the H₂ QUANTITY 1 meter decreases faster than the H₂ QUANTITY 2 meter.

• Switch the H₂ FANS 2 switch to ON (down position). The pressure in H₂ tank 2 increases continuously without stopping, the CRYO PRESS alarm goes away and comes back to indicate the now too high pressure, push the MASTER ALARM pushbutton/light to turn off the alarm. This way you can overpressure the tank (but it doesn't explode at the moment...). Switch the H₂ FANS 2 switch back to OFF if you have enough pressure.

• Switch the H₂ HEATERS 2 switch and the H₂ FANS 2 switch back to AUTO (up position). Now the tanks are operated automatically again. Please notice that they now doesn't operate "synchronously" as before.

CSM fuel cell shutdown and restart

Attention

Because of the work-in-progress of the EPS this procedure is not working at the moment.

During normal operations all fuel cells are running and have a load of about 20 A at the moment. Unlike in reality we can shutdown and restart the fuel cells at any time.

• Switch to time acceleration 100. Switch the FUEL CELL INDICATOR to position 1. You can monitor a hydrogen and oxygen flow above 0 lb/hr on the FUEL CELL FLOW H₂/O₂ meters and a FUEL CELL MODULE SKIN TEMP of above 400 °F.

• Make sure that the FC REACS VALVES switch is in NORM position, otherwise you cannot operate the fuel cell reactants valves. Switch the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 1 switch to OFF (down position). The switch is spring-loaded and flips back to to center position. Now fuel cell 1 is down, the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 1 indicator changes to striped-line indication, both flows are 0 lb/hr, but the fuel cell skin temperature remains almost unchanged because the fuel cell temperature is still maintained by the fuel cell heaters.

• Switch the FUEL CELL HEATERS 1 switch to OFF (down position). The fuel cell skin (and condenser exhaust) temperature decreases slowly. Wait until it drops below 300 °F (use time acceleration 1000, if you are impatient...).

• Switch the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 1 switch to ON (up position). Unfortunatly the fuel cell does not start, because the skin temperature is below 300 °F.

• Switch the FUEL CELL HEATERS 1 switch to up position. The fuel cell skin temperature increases slowly. After 300 °F is reached, again switch the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 1 switch to ON (up position). The fuel cell turns on, the flows are normal again and the skin temperature increases quickly to the old value. The fuel cell is running normally again.

CSM fuel cell radiator emergency bypass

Attention

Because of the work-in-progress of the EPS this procedure is not working at the moment.

During normal operations no fuel cell emergency bypass is necessary. But if only one fuel cell is running at a load of about 20 A, you have to bypass some of the radiators so that the coolant temperature is not too low.

• Switch to time acceleration 100. Switch the FUEL CELL INDICATOR to position 1. Make sure that the FC REACS VALVES switch is in NORM position. Switch the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 2 and 3 switches to OFF (down position). The FUEL CELL REACTANTS 2 and 3 indicators change to striped-line indication.

• Wait some time (use time acceleration 1000, if you are impatient...), then the FC RAD TEMP LOW indicator changes to striped-line indicating a coolant temperature below -30°F.

• Switch the FUEL CELL RADIATORS 1 switch to EMER BYPASS (down position). The switch is spring-loaded and flips back to to center position. The FUEL CELL RADIATORS 1 indicator changes to striped-line indication. After a short time the FC RAD TEMP LOW indicator changes back to gray indicating a normal coolant temperature. You are now in "emergency mode".

• Monitor fuel cell 2 and 3 by switching the FUEL CELL INDICATOR to position 2 and 3. The flows are 0 lb/hr of course and the FC RAD TEMP LOW indicator shows striped-line indication because the radiators of the other fuel cells are not bypassed. Switch the FUEL CELL INDICATOR back to position 1.

• Switch the FUEL CELL RADIATORS 1 switch to NORMAL (up position). Switch the FUEL CELL REACTANTS 2 and 3 switches to ON (up position). You are now back in "normal mode". The FC RAD TEMP LOW indicator should show gray indication again.