From Sea To Shining Sea: From the Sea of Tranquility to the Gulf Stream

From Sea to Shining Sea:
A Film Treatment by Paul Gasek and Gene Carl Feldman

At this point, all the humidity-absorbing silica is used up. Carbon dioxide and monoxide build-up is a constant worry. Tests show microbial contamination, particularly by pseudomonas bacteria, is increasing and, as Chet May puts it, "the bad guys have taken over from the good guys". The waste management system is struggling. Early on in the mission, the macerator quits, so a month’s worth of human waste, stored in tanks, is rebelling. Thirty days of trash is neatly compacted and stored aboard, as well as a month’s worth of dirty clothes worn by men who have not showered in as long. Kazimir recalls that the odor was undetectable aboard - but later, after they opened the hatch and breathed some fresh air, the smell from inside the Franklin was terrible.

Three weeks earlier, on July 24, the Apollo 11 crew "splashes down" in the Pacific. On August 14, 23 days later, and 31 days after submerging off Florida, the Ben Franklin "splashes up" 300 miles SSE of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and opens her hatches for the first time. Her long mission to explore the Gulf Stream is finally at an end, after 715 hours and 1,444 nautical miles.

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