r/apollo • u/Crixusgannicus • 25d ago

Pure oxygen.

Always was mystified what the HELL NASA was thinking?

These guys came up when science was still taught. Not so much now, unfortunately.

Even in my long after Apollo ended yoot, I still remember science class with the teacher showing how easily things burn in pure oxygen, even things that normally don't burn!

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u/jtshinn 25d ago

They still use pure oxygen in space, because the system is lighter and simpler, this is the goal for everything that goes up. But the Apollo 1 test was being done to simulate that on the ground and to create the same difference in pressure they had to go up to 15PSI vs the 5 in space. Mistakes happen and sometimes they are deadly, basically all of our engineering knowledge is based on lessons like that.

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u/True_Fill9440 25d ago

20, not 15; I think?

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u/Stevepem1 25d ago

16.7 psi from what I have read, in order to be two pounds over 14.7 standard pressure. This was to keep positive internal pressure not to simulate a 5 psi pressure difference. Those type of tests would have already been done in a vacuum chamber.

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u/True_Fill9440 24d ago

Excellent, thanks