The Apollo Command Module's primary source of electric power was from a set of three "fuel cells" housed in the Service Module. Each fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water. The water was used for drinking by the astronaut crew. Each of the fuel cell power plants contain 31 separate cells connected in series. Each cell has hydrogen and an oxygen compartments and ele
This fuel cell is a cutaway version of the electric-power generating device used on the two-astronaut Gemini spacecraft during ten missions in 1965-66. A fuel cell is like a battery, in that it uses a chemical reaction to create an electrical current. Unlike a battery, a fuel cell will continue to generate a current as long as the reactants are supplied. The Gemini fuel cell used liquid oxygen and
The Fulton Skyhook Air Rescue System and Aerial Recovery System, also in the Museum collections, are perhaps his most unsung but bold aerial successes. The U.S. Air Force, from the Korean War through the Vietnam War and beyond, used the Air Rescue System for the retrieval of personnel from covert maneuvers or crew downed in hostile territory, day and night, land and sea. Dr. William Leary’s Operat