Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault

[david correia]

Here's some more info:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
axonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9134771&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1





David Correia
www.Celebrationsound.com

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, david correia > wrote:
>Here's some more info:
>
>http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
>axonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9134771&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1
>

They were also looking for pictures or movies on the moon looking at earth to
look at the ice caps back then. I don't think it
mentions tapes of the moonwalk recorded in real time that were
much better than the TV feed. They were analog tapes.

greg

[Scott Dorsey]

GregS > wrote:
>In article >, david correia > wrote:
>>Here's some more info:
>>
>>http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
>>axonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9134771&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1
>
>They were also looking for pictures or movies on the moon looking at earth to
>look at the ice caps back then.

Yes, but those were photos shot by astronauts, on film.

The Lunar Orbiter was an unmanned thing... it shot high resolution film of
the moon, then it scanned it very slowly and sent the images back to earth
were they were plotted out on film and ALSO recorded on an Ampex FR-900
instrumentation recorder. Everything analogue, everything realtime.

The film plots are kind of rough... and all this stuff was analogue and
drifted a lot. The big deal is that these guys are taking the original
FR-900 tapes, digitizing them, and getting much higher resolution images
because they have higher bandwidth and a lot less drift.

>I don't think it
>mentions tapes of the moonwalk recorded in real time that were
>much better than the TV feed. They were analog tapes.

That's a different creature altogether. There are a bunch of other FR-900
tapes that were recorded of the slow scan TV feed from Apollo 11, which
were lost and may now have been found. Unrelated tapes, but a similar
storage format.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, (GregS) wrote:
>In article >, david correia
> > wrote:
>>Here's some more info:
>>
>>http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
>>axonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9134771&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1
>>
>
>They were also looking for pictures or movies on the moon looking at earth to
>look at the ice caps back then. I don't think it
>mentions tapes of the moonwalk recorded in real time that were
>much better than the TV feed. They were analog tapes.


This is some info collected by me about the first moonwalk.
**
But, seriously, I am still working with NASA in the search for the "lost"
Apollo 11 tapes. We are in the middle of collecting the best of what
remains to restore and include in a special NASA 40th anniversary of Apollo
11 next year. Recently we found three original Ampex VR2000 quad video
tapes that were recorded at Houston in real time. An ex-employee at JSC
bought them as part of a GSA auction of excessed video tapes in 1974. The
other originals were damaged beyond repair in about 1978 when the air
conditioning in JSC tape archive was turned off nights and weekends as part
of the NASA power savings effort. The original M22 slow-scan recordings
that made at Goldstone, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes were degaussed and
reused as part of a GSFC program to both save money and due to the fact that
the tape manufacturers used a synthetic binder that degraded after about 6
months.
,,

But we are working on restoring NTSC tapes from different sources.

,,

No. Lunar Orbiter used Ampex FR-900's. Those are very wide band video tape
machines used in the DSN. We were looking for 1-inch wide, 14-track, M22
tapes. At one time the Pioneer DSN wing had one for Lunar Obiter.
**

greg

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, (GregS) wrote:
>In article >,
> (GregS) wrote:
>>In article >, david correia
>> > wrote:
>>>Here's some more info:
>>>
>>>http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&t
>>>axonomyName=Hardware&articleId=9134771&taxonomyId=12&pageNumber=1
>>>
>>
>>They were also looking for pictures or movies on the moon looking at earth to
>>look at the ice caps back then. I don't think it
>>mentions tapes of the moonwalk recorded in real time that were
>>much better than the TV feed. They were analog tapes.
>
>
>This is some info collected by me about the first moonwalk.
>**
>But, seriously, I am still working with NASA in the search for the "lost"
>Apollo 11 tapes. We are in the middle of collecting the best of what
>remains to restore and include in a special NASA 40th anniversary of Apollo
>11 next year. Recently we found three original Ampex VR2000 quad video
>tapes that were recorded at Houston in real time. An ex-employee at JSC
>bought them as part of a GSA auction of excessed video tapes in 1974. The
>other originals were damaged beyond repair in about 1978 when the air
>conditioning in JSC tape archive was turned off nights and weekends as part
>of the NASA power savings effort. The original M22 slow-scan recordings
>that made at Goldstone, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes were degaussed and
>reused as part of a GSFC program to both save money and due to the fact that
>the tape manufacturers used a synthetic binder that degraded after about 6
>months.
>,,
>
>But we are working on restoring NTSC tapes from different sources.
>
>,,
>
>No. Lunar Orbiter used Ampex FR-900's. Those are very wide band video tape
>machines used in the DSN. We were looking for 1-inch wide, 14-track, M22
>tapes. At one time the Pioneer DSN wing had one for Lunar Obiter.
>**

I could swear there was a story about taking reltime video from a real time
slow scan monitor, recorded on some kind of tape.
Maybe that was from a dream I had !!

greg

[Scott Dorsey]

GregS > wrote:
>
>I could swear there was a story about taking reltime video from a real time
>slow scan monitor, recorded on some kind of tape.
>Maybe that was from a dream I had !!

Yes, that's the Apollo 11 system, not the Lunar Orbiter.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=119487&id=8&as=false&or=false&qs=No%3D50%26Ntt%3Dapollo%2Bvideo%26Ntk%3Dall%26Nt x%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ns%3DPublicationYear%257c1%2 6N%3D0

Get the pdf file, it shows the whole evolution from 320 line slow scan
up to field-sequential color.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>GregS > wrote:
>>
>>I could swear there was a story about taking reltime video from a real time
>>slow scan monitor, recorded on some kind of tape.
>>Maybe that was from a dream I had !!
>
>Yes, that's the Apollo 11 system, not the Lunar Orbiter.

I was thinking in terms of a video camera aimed at the slow scan monitor.

Todays camcorder !!


greg

[Scott Dorsey]

GregS > wrote:
>In article >, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
>>GregS > wrote:
>>>
>>>I could swear there was a story about taking reltime video from a real time
>>>slow scan monitor, recorded on some kind of tape.
>>>Maybe that was from a dream I had !!
>>
>>Yes, that's the Apollo 11 system, not the Lunar Orbiter.
>
>I was thinking in terms of a video camera aimed at the slow scan monitor.

That is in fact what the Apollo 11 system used. Tektronix long-persistance
phosphor tube with a vidicon camera pointed at it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."