An interior view of the Apollo 13 Lunar Module (LM) during the trouble-plagued journey back to Earth. This photograph shows some of the temporary hose connections and apparatus which were necessary when the three Apollo astronauts moved from the Command Module (CM) to use the LM as a “lifeboat.” Astronaut John L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot, is on the right. An unidentified astronaut on the left holds in his right hand the feed water bag from the Portable Life Support System (PLSS). It is connected to a hose (center) from the Lunar Topographic (Hycon) Camera. In the background is the “mail box,” an improvised arrangement which the crew men built to use the CM lithium hydroxide canisters to scrub CO2 from the spacecraft’s atmosphere. Since there was a limited amount of lithium hydroxide in the LM, this arrangement was rigged up to utilize the canisters from the CM. The “mail box” was designed and tested on the ground at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) (now known as the the Johnson Space Center (JSC)) before it was suggested to the Apollo 13 astronauts.
Image credit: NASA