The Search for the Apollo 11 SSTV Tapes

Let me make a correction to what I said yesterday about the search for Apollo 11 Slow Scan TV tapes. I said the tapes were sent to NASA by mistake and that was not the case. They were sent according to contractual agreements.

Whether they are lost or just misplaced is still in question.

Missions have different requirements. The Pioneer 10 and 11 NASA storage instructions called for the original Master Data Record tapes to be disposed of after a certain period of time. It doesn't do any good to take up storage space for media that degrades. I was just lucky in that they had been copied to Magneto Optical disks which were still in our possession.

I don't know what the original archival instructions were for these Apollo
11 tapes. The folks at GSFC would have that information.
- LRK -

You might be interested in the full story in a PDF file at http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/tapes/Search_for_SSTV_Tapes.pdf

The Search for the Apollo 11 SSTV Tapes
John M. Sarkissian
Operations Scientist
CSIRO Parkes Observatory
21 May 2006

It is 22 pages and about 2MB
A snip from the beginning.
- LRK -
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Executive Summary

For the past several years a group of dedicated former Apollo 11 personnel have been searching for the original magnetic data tapes that contain the high quality Slow-Scan TV of the Apollo 11 EVA.
This report is a detailed justification of their efforts to date. In summary, the key points are:

. In July 1969, three tracking stations received the TV signals of the historic Apollo 11 EVA. They were the DSN 64 metre antenna at Goldstone, California, the MSFN 26 metre antenna at Honeysuckle Creek, Australia, and the 64 metre CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.

. The TV signals transmitted from the Moon were high quality Slow-Scan TV (SSTV).

. When received on Earth, they were scan-converted to the commercial TV standards before being broadcast to the public at large.

. The scan-converted TV signals, from each of the three stations, were then relayed via landline, microwave relays and geostationary satellite to Houston before being released to the TV networks for general broadcast.

. The signal, as sent from the Moon, was initially degraded by the scan-conversion process, producing lower resolution images and introducing additional signal noise. Also, the transmission of the scan-converted TV to Houston caused additional signal degradation. This lower quality TV is currently all that is available of the Apollo 11 EVA.

. The SSTV was of superior quality to the scan-converted pictures viewed by the world.

. As the raw SSTV signals were received at the three tracking stations, they were recorded onto 1-inch magnetic data tapes. Following the EVA, procedures required that these tapes be shipped to the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

. In 1970, the tapes were placed in the US National Archives in Accession #69A4099. By 1984, all but two of the over 700 boxes of Apollo era magnetic tapes placed in the Accession, were removed and returned to the GSFC for permanent retention. These tapes are now missing.

. These missing data tapes include the raw Apollo 11 SSTV tapes. For the past several years, a search for these tapes has been undertaken by several former Apollo 11 personnel. To date, no Apollo 11 SSTV tapes have been found.

. When the tapes are found, it is hoped to recover the original, high quality SSTV of the first lunar EVA and to release it to the public for the first time.

. The Data Evaluation Lab (DEL) at the Goddard Space Flight Center is the only known place that has the equipment and expertise to playback the tapes and to recover the data.

. The DEL is slated for closure in October 2006.

. Efforts are underway to assure the future of the DEL (the critical hardware located in the DEL that would be required for tape evaluation and processing is being removed and retained through the efforts of the former Apollo engineers).

. It is vital that the DEL (or some elements of it) remain open and functional, otherwise none of the Apollo data tapes can ever be played back and the historic information recovered.

. This report details the reasons why the search for the tapes was undertaken, how much better the SSTV was to the scan-converted TV and the progress of the search to date.

Snip
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And do any of you know the answer to this question?

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Accession Document #69A4099. Note: Sam Preecs is the Agency Official who signed the Accession. He is the most likely person to know where the tapes are. Where is Sam today?
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Thanks for looking up with me.


Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/tapes/
The search for the Apollo 11 TV tapes

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5578853
Search Is on for Original Apollo 11 Footage

http://honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/index.html
HSK, Apollo 11 & TV from the Moon
Monday 21st July 1969 Australian time

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4c. Re: Lost Apollo 11 high-quality video
Posted by: "Colin Mackellar" colin@honeysucklecreek.net colinmackellar
Date: Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:34 pm (PDT)

--- In ProjectApollo@yahoogroups.com, "pgh_hound" wrote:
>
> I'm surprised that I don't see any discussion of the piece that aired
> on National Public Radio this morning about the lost Apollo 11 video tape.
> ( story at
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5578853 )

Hi Gary,

Yes, we hope that story will bring out of the woodwork someone who knows where the tapes are. There must be *someone*.

Part of the trouble with "magnetic tapes" is that, to the casual observer, they all look pretty much the same. For example, a contractor might have been involved in moving them (from one storage facility to another) while having no idea of what it was they were moving. The tapes were more likely to have "NCG-725" rather than "Apollo 11" on the tape label.

Three things came together to prompt the search -

i.) The discovery of still photos taken of the slow scan and scan converted TV monitors (17 photos from Honeysuckle Creek, 2 from Goldstone and 1 from
Parkes)

ii.) The discovery of a Honeysuckle Creek telemetry tape. This is the one mentioned in the story. Although it was from a 1967 simulation, not from Apollo11, when sent to Goddard, data could be recovered from it OK.

iii.) The discovery of the Super 8 film taken at Honeysuckle Creek during the Apollo 11 EVA. Even though it was only hand-held Super 8, some of the footage is significantly better than was seen outside Goldstone, Honeysuckle and Parkes.

When questions were asked about the telemetry tapes from the three receiving stations - that's when the fun started.

By the way, scan-converted TV (on 2" Ampex quad tape) was also recorded at Goldstone, Honeysuckle and Sydney Video (for the Parkes picture). These wouldn't be as good as the slow scan / telemetry tapes - but if they could be found, their picture would be an improvement on what we have. Trouble is
- those tapes are probably in the same place as the telemetry tapes. :-(

Colin Mackellar

Sydney


Messages in this topic (5)
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4d. Re: Lost Apollo 11 high-quality video
Posted by: "Mick Winfield" winfieldmick@hotmail.com winfieldmick
Date: Tue Aug 1, 2006 1:01 pm (PDT)

Sorry guys, should probably be paying more attention but are only the tapes of A11 'lost' or is there better quality material out there for other missions waiting to be discovered?

Mick W.


Messages in this topic (5)
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4e. Re: [ProjectApollo] Re: Lost Apollo 11 high-quality video
Posted by: "ygroups@ektr.com" ygroups@ektr.com andorauk
Date: Tue Aug 1, 2006 1:31 pm (PDT)

IIRC, they have lost virtually all of the Apollo telemetry tapes, approx.
700 boxes, each with 5/6 reels of tape, covering all missions!

Also, the only known NASA facility (The Data Evaluation Lab/DEL) that can read these tapes is due to close in October, after this point, it will become more dificult to read any tapes that may be found. It is not clear (to me at any rate) if some of the this unique equipment will be kept operational after this point. Very little mention has been made about this important fact in recent prior posts.

Something must be done to escalate this search - so this important historical record is not lost forever, before its too late. The news that the DEL is living on borrowed time puts this into perspective, we have a few tens of days NOT months to make some progress here.

I am also disppointed/dismayed that so little debate has been prompted on this forum, following this recent news.

The only hope, in my humble opinion, would be to mount a national appeal over the US media networks, perhaps backed by someone like Tom Hanks.

Somebody get me his number, and I will call him !

+tim+



"Mick Winfield" Sent by:

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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