LIGHTS OUT
(For those of you who know me, you know my fascination with space flight)
It was my privilege to know the late astronaut, Colonel Jim Irwin. Jim served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 15, July 26 to August 7, 1971. His companions on the flight were David R. Scott, spacecraft commander and Al Worden, command module pilot. Apollo 15 was the fourth manned lunar landing mission and the first to visit and explore the moon's Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountains which are located on the southeast edge of the Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains). The lunar module, "Falcon", remained on the lunar surface for 66 hours, 54 minutes-setting a new record for lunar surface stay time-and Scott and Irwin logged 18 hours and 35 minutes each in extravehicular activities conducted during three separate excursions onto the lunar surface.
The other day, I watched Apollo 13 again. Jim Lovell, the commander of the mission, tells a story in the film, which is a true story. It all about a mission he flew as an Air Force pilot during the Korean War. He was launching and landing on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. As he was returning to the carrier, he lost all power to his jet. So…a bit of an emergency for sure. He had his interior lights, so he could see his altitude and avionics. There was a very low cloud cover that night (oh yeah, it was a night mission) so he had no appreciable way of seeing where the carrier was. He descended below the clouds, and then things got WAY worse. He lost ALL electronics…no interior lights…no nothing! He said he assumed he would have to ditch in the Pacific…never a good choice, as any aircraft is not built for that sort of thing.
As he continued to descend, and with little hope, he noticed something strange. He saw a luminous, green glow in the water, in a straight line, going for about a kilometre or so. Very strange. He then remembered that there was a type of plankton that is found in marine environments, that, when disturbed, glow green. He figured out that this was happening due to the propeller stirring up the water, and in the wake of the ship, this green algae was "lighting up the runway" for him.
Interesting that the most desperate, hopeless time for Lovell was the very thing that saved him. Had he not lost all his lights, particularly the planes interior lights, he would have never seen the glow of the plankton in the water.
Sometimes, it is in our most desperate situation that we find our mercy…our rescue…our hope.
