The lost NASA tapes: Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault

Jeff Marraccini, Director, Computer Systems, Altair Engineering, Inc.
http://www.altair.com/ sent me the below link and it brought back memories
of NASA Ames and my getting coffee and a bagel at McDonald's on my walk into
Ames. Now no Navy Exchange and McDonalds' is McMoon's.

We are coming up on 40 years since we first landed men on the Moon and it is
a good reminder that we need to preserve the data from missions past for
those who come later and might want to look at the old data in the light of
new technology.

I am guilty of watching old 1 inch magnetic tapes from the Pioneer Venus
missions being thrown out because they were contaminated by sewer backups in
the basement of the building I worked in. Who would want to watch TV
interviews of what was found on Venus?

Take a look at the link below. It is an interesting article. Hope you have
the time to read.
- LRK -

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The lost NASA tapes: Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134771
A Mac Pro and 40-year-old tape drives are helping restore the original Lunar
Orbiter tapes
By Lamont Wood
June 29, 2009 12:01 AM ET

Computerworld - Liquid nitrogen, vegetable steamers, Macintosh workstations
and old, refrigerator-size tape drives. These are just some of the tools a
new breed of Space Age archeologists is using to sift through the digital
debris from the early days of NASA, mining the information in ways
unimaginable when it was first gathered four decades ago.

At stake is data that could show Earth's risk of an asteroid strike, shed
light on global warming and -- perhaps -- even satisfy those who think the
moon landings were a hoax.

The most visible of the archeologists is arguably Dennis Wingo, head of
Skycorp Inc., a small aerospace engineering firm in Huntsville, Ala. He's
the driving force behind the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, operating
out of a decommissioned McDonald's (since dubbed McMoon's) at NASA's Ames
Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. The project's goal is to recover
and enhance as many of the original lunar landing images as possible.

snip
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If you like to follow folks on Twitter, ApolloPlus40 is posting twitter as
if it was happening back leading up to the Apollo 11 mission.
http://twitter.com/ApolloPlus40
Name ApolloPlus40
Location The Moon
Web http://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/events/apolloplus40/
Bio Nature News twitters the Apollo 11 moon mission as it happened -- 40
years on


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
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
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This too is worth a read if you are wondering why go to the Moon and on to
Mars. - LRK -
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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1334
Going Beyond The Status Quo In Space

Dennis Wingo, Paul Spudis, and Gordon Woodcock
Sunday, June 28, 2009

"Perhaps worst of all, we were (are) hearing an incessant drumbeat that the
world was running out of room and resources, that we faced a world of
limits, a zero-sum game in which our children would have to settle for less
in life than we had. Many young people who picked up that message-that
success would be elusive--concluded that study and hard work might not be
the kind of blue-chip investments they were a generation earlier. The space
program itself was viewed by many as a too-expensive series of stunts that
would be unaffordable in the bad times ahead. It was certainly not seen in
terms of an investment in breaking out of those limits and into new and
better times."

Setting The Context

The preceding paragraph was not written in the last few years. It is an
excerpt of a speech given by Dr. George Keyworth, Director of the Office of
Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) almost 25 years ago. Therein lies the
issue before us today when considering how to re-craft the "Vision for Space
Exploration" into a policy that can garner the continuing support of the
Congress and the American people. Our exploration effort beyond Low Earth
Orbit (LEO) must make a concrete connection to addressing the critical
issues that confront our nation and our civilization today. This is the
subject of this missive

Declaration

The next step in our space program is the development of a true space faring
civilization using the Moon as a stepping stone. Elements of such a system
include a lunar spaceport, settlement, and industrial infrastructure to
support the further economic development of the Solar System. Pursuing this
goal requires a different way of thinking about space infrastructure and
operations. Reducing operating cost is paramount. We must accept high-payoff
new technologies and manage their risks until they are mature. But the
payoff is huge: a new economic frontier in space.

snip
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Buzz Aldrin isn't happy about how we handling our entry to using space for
humans. - LRK -
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http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200927/3951/Buzz-Aldrin-calls-for-focus-on-manned-Mars-mission
Buzz Aldrin calls for focus on manned Mars mission
by Rich Bowden - Jun 29 2009, 04:21

Legendary Moon walker and NASA spaceman Buzz Aldrin has said the race to
establish a permanent Moon base should be the result of international
cooperation with the real focus on a manned mission to Mars.

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Popular Mechanics magazine, Aldrin said
the next race to be the first to host a manned presence on the Moon should
not be a financially damaging "space race" but an international effort
combining the resources of China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia.

"By renouncing our goal of being first on the Moon (again), we would call
off Space Race II with the Chinese and encourage them to channel their
ambitious lunar efforts into the consortium," Aldrin said.
He added that the Mark II mission to the Moon is, in fact, a "damaging"
detour from what should be NASA's principal objective -- namely, the
preparation for a manned mission to Mars.

"The agency's current Vision for Space Exploration will waste decades and
hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reach the moon by 2020 -- a
glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago," he said. "Instead of a
steppingstone to Mars, NASA's current lunar plan is a detour."

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

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