Quadratic Regression Project By: Edwin Esparza James Melton

Scenario: After the explosion in the oxygen tanks of the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) on Apollo13, mission control was given two options in aborting the mission. Option 1 was a direct abort in which the LEM would turn its “retro-rockets” and head directly back home. Option 2 was to use the gravitational pull of the moon to slingshot the astronauts back to Earth. As history tells, option 2 was the option chosen. In this project we investigated option number1.

Situation on Apollo 13 data Time (seconds) Distance from the Moon (km) 1 425 2 356 3 293 4 236 8 68 This data represents how the spacecraft got closer to the moon and in how many seconds it did it in.

Mission option number 1 analysis At t=10 seconds Apollo 13 would be 20 km from the moon. We know this because (see question 8). The spacecraft would have crashed into the moon. The lowest point of the graph is -7 km (see question 6 below) .

Time -The Y-intercept represents the point at which we begin keeping track of time and it is (0, 500) Apollo 13 will crash into the moon at about t=11.47 seconds. I know tis because I plugged 0 for Y to get the exact time at which Apollo 13 struck the moon (see equations beside)

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