October 7, 2010 10:00am by David Farrar

Apollo 13 at Downstage

Apollo 13: Mission Control will be performed at Downstage from 30 October to 18 December.

Attending will be a fun experience, as the audience get to participate and make certain decisions.

As part of the promotion for the show, Kiwiblog has five free double passes which can be redeemed for tickets in the first two weeks of the season.

Below are five questions about Apollo 13. If you are the first person to supply a correct answer in the comments, you win one double pass.

Do not answer more than one question. You can only win one pass. If you answer multiple questions, then you will not win anything.

If you are not in a position to actually use the tickets, then please don’t answer.

Okay, so the questions are:

  1. How many seconds, in total, was the duration of the Apollo 13 mission (take off to landing)
  2. What is the name of the ship which picked up the crew of Apollo 13 after they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean?
  3. A more formal designation for the Apollo 13 mission was Eastern Test Range #XXXX – what was the four digit number designation
  4. One of the crew was later elected to the US Congress. How long did he serve for?
  5. What is the fastest velocity or speed obtained by an Apollo space craft, in metres/seconds? A clue – it was Apollo 10.

I will update this post with the correct answers and winners. Winners then need to e-mail me their name and address.

ANSWERS:

  1. The duration was 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds. Each component is 41 + 3240 + 79200 + 432000 = 514,481 seconds
  2. The ship was the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship
  3. The designation was Eastern Test Range #3381
  4. Pilot Jack Swigert was elected to Congress as the Representative for Colorado’s 6th in November 1982. He died on 27 December 1982, a week before he was sworn in
  5. Apollo 10 reached a maximum velocity of 39,897 km/hr which is 11,082.50 metres per second. Almost impossible to imagine travelling 11 kms in a single second.

The winners are taranaki, Graeme Edgeler, J Mex, themono and aucklandmedic. Well done.