Is the broom trick used in the movie “Send Me to the Moon” to detect hydrogen leaks real?

During the first appearance Cole DavisChanning Tatum’s character in Fly with me to the moonwe see him use a simple trick to discover hydrogen leak. Sensors warn that some of this liquid fuel has evaporated and left the tanks it was in. Unfortunately, it is important to detect it, so walk around the objects with broom until it catches fire and points the way to extinguish an invisible hydrogen fire. It’s a funny scene that opens this romantic comedy about Apollo 11 launchBut does what he does make scientific sense?

That’s the question that might arise when watching that first scene, and the answer is yes. Not only does it make scientific sense, but it’s true that Apollo 11 engineers used the broom trick to detect hydrogen leak.

We already know this Fly with me to the moon It’s a mixture of very well-preserved real events, artistic and narrative licenses. A good example of such licenses is the fake video of the moon landing that the film revolves around. But the broom trick is very real. How could something so basic be so useful for NASA?

The Invisible Danger of Hydrogen Leaks

During the Apollo missions, liquid hydrogen was one of the most commonly used fuels. spaceships. Even today, it is still used in some cases, as it allows for maximum tank volume and very efficient lift generation. Unfortunately, this option has a serious drawback, as hydrogen leaks can lead to invisible lights.

As long as it remains liquefied, in a liquid state, hydrogen is not a problem. Unfortunately, it can escape and evaporate, returning to a gaseous state and quickly causing a fire. Hydrogen is flammable in concentrations in the range from 4% to 75%. This is a very wide range. If the hydrogen leaks out into the open air, it dissipates and there are no problems, but in closed installations the 4% level is very easily reached.

Once this happens, the problems will still remain. This gas has radiant heat very low. That is, it transmits very little thermal energyso we won’t feel the heat of the flame until we’re at the top of it. And the worst thing is that we can’t see it either, because it’s a color pale blueIt is impossible to see during the day. Nowadays, there are very effective sensors for detecting hydrogen leaks and their origin, but in the 1960s they had not yet been invented, so it was necessary to use something as basic as a broom, as we see in the picture. Send me to the moon.

Broom trick Fly with me to the moon

IN Fly with me to the moon we see the alarm alerting Cole Davis to a hydrogen leak, but not specifying the location. NASA engineers did the same thing: walking around the facilities with a straw broom in front of them. Given straw burns very easilyas soon as it came into contact with the invisible flame, it caught fire. Thus, the leak could be fixed before the concentration of hydrogen in the air became too high and could cause an explosion.

Even though it was elementary, it was very effective. Of course, what is done today is much more effective, but for that time it was not bad at all. It is very interesting that in Fly with me to the moon made a nod to this little-known technique in order to show from the very beginning that, despite the abundance of fiction, the scriptwriters also thoroughly immersed themselves in the plot. The real story of NASA.