Question: Why couldn't the fuel cells be opened again once they were closed?
Sierra1
18th Dec 2017
Apollo 13 (1995)
Answer: Yes they did. And as in the movie, it was futile since the reac valves had failed anyway.
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Answer: The reactant valves to the fuel cells could not be re-opened once they were closed (except by ground servicing) because they are very delicate and must be precisely calibrated. Although CAPCOM tells Lovell to manually close the valves for cells 1 and 3, they had already failed and closed so this had no effect.
Sierra1 ★
Did they really try closing fuel cells 1 and 3 like in the movie?