Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 20 Sep 2013

Dennis Wingo: Status, Friday evening September 20, 2013. We are in the process of clearing our backlog of processed tapes. There is a tremendous amount of extremely tedious work that Austin has to do in organizing and processing the raw image scans into framelets first, then into images. We are going to stand down for a few days on capturing images while we catch up some.
Here is the stack of tapes from Woomera and Goldstone completed from Lunar Orbiter V. The second stack are the remaining tapes, all from Madrid, that have to be processed.
We have a couple of cool images that we have processed that we will show next week! — at McMoons.
Click on images to enlarge

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 18 Sep 2013

Dennis Wingo: Status End of Day Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Well got more done today! We just finished capturing G5-148, meaning we have ten more Goldstone tapes to go!
Among the images captured today was the Earth image of LOV-027H. It should look mega cool with our processing that we have now.
One big darn headache that took forever to sort out today is that Goldstone not only quit putting sequence numbers on the tapes, they must have forgotten two tapes after G5-136 and numbered them for the following day as G5-146 and G5-147′. That single quote is for G5-147 prime as it is normally known. So we have TWO TAPES labeled G5-147! It looks like the operator of the FR-900 had a bad day or two. The only way to figure these things out is to actually watch every darn frame let and figure out where the end of frames are. No two high res or medium res images start or end on the same framlet, thanks to how the resolution charts were imprinted on the film.
So, I will list the images in the morning. Going for wine now!

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 17 Sep 2013

Dennis Wingo: Status Tuesday September 17, 2013.
Lots going on today, here are the images since tape G5-114.
G5-115, complete capture LOV-100M, 101H
G5-116, partial capture LOV-099M, 098M completes 099M (overlap here with W5-38, only needed to capture a couple of framelets from each image)
G5-117, partial capture LOV-098M, 099H (completes images) (overlap with W5-038 and W5-124)
G5-119, partial capture LOV-096M (completes image) (overlap with W5-126, 127)
G5-120, not needed, overlap with W5-128
G5-121, not needed overlap with W5-036, W5-129
G5-122, partial capture LOV-079M, 080H
G5-123, not needed, overlap with W5-032
G5-124, partial capture LOV-078H (completes image, overlaps with W5-033)
G5-125, partial capture LOV-076M, complete capture 077H
G5-126, partial capture LOV-075M, complete capture 076H
G5-127, partial capture LOV-074M, complete capture 075H (some overlap with W5-031)
G5-128, complete capture LOV-073M, 074H, partial capture 072M
G5-129, partial capture LOV-072M (completes image), complete capture 073H
Those are all of the ones captured last Friday. Below is what was captured on Monday.
G5-130, partial capture LOV-071M (completes image) (overlaps with W5-029)
G5-131, partial capture LOV-071H (completes image) (overlaps with W5-030)
G5-132, partial capture LOV-069M (completes image) (overlaps with G5-032, W5-139
G5-133, not needed, overlaps with G5-033, W5-140
G5-134, not needed, overlaps with W5-141,142
G5-135, partial capture LOV-054H, 053H, complete capture 052M
G5-136, partial capture LOV-050M, 051H (completes both images with an overlap with G5-027. G5-136 framelets are duplicates of G5-027
This is where we are at this morning. Will be back at capturing this afternoon but with no sequence numbers I have to run tape that I can’t capture in order to figure out what images I have the old fashioned way, by looking at the framelets and then comparing with the images in the LPI database. This is not as easy as it sounds as there are many images missing from LOV at LPI.

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 16 Sep 2013

Dennis Wingo: Status, end of day, September 16, 2013
My head hurts. When NASA was doing the priority readout of the LOV images, they did a lot more of them than on the previous missions. It looks like they did more early in the mission than later in the mission. Thus today has been an exercise in checking out each tape that we do against previous captures of Goldstone and Woomera tapes now. We do this as every minute we save of head life means another tape that we could capture.
I have captured some data that is a duplication and I don’t want to do it. Another issue is that some of our tapes have not been processed yet so I have to refer to my notes a lot.
Making things WORSE on us is the fact that JPL quit putting the sequence numbers on the tape which has been our ONLY WAY to reference what was on the tapes without comparing the times that the machine was one for each site which bless em they still put the TIME CAPTURED on the tapes. However, for these overlaps it does not work as the times are not correlated so I have to play each tape, at least the first couple and the last couple of framelets, figure out what sequence number the tape actually is from, and then measure that against my paperwork from the LOV photo addendum record.
That is why my head hurts. I need coffee.
The bottom line is that though we have captured little data today, we are through tape G5-136. So that means 21 tapes to go for Goldstone!

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 13 Sep 2013


Dennis Wingo: – Status, end of day Friday September 13, 2013.
A very productive day today. I am currently finishing up G5-129, yep that is 15 tapes today. Some only needed a few framelets and a couple I did not have to run at all but that is still a heck of a lot of work. Since August 18th we have process 249 tapes, representing almost 5,000 lbs of tape product moved twice. I will post the tape to image numbers when I can….
Here is a picture of the tape pile for LOV as it continues to grow.
There is a reason that we are getting more head life. One is that since we don’t really have to play these tapes again we have the heads “dig” into the tapes with more pressure, allowing a worn head to still provide signal. Another factor is that the head that these tapes were made on was worn itself as they record what the tip size is so that we can tell that. So a couple of lucky breaks plus knowing how to finagle the last bit of head life has helped us along. Click on image to enlarge.

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Status Report 12 Sep 2013

Dennis Wingo: – Status, end of day Thursday September 12, 2013.
A pretty productive day today. Made it through G5-114 (playing now) today. Pretty good overlaps today and some long runs.
G5-103, partial capture LOV-129M, complete capture 130H
G5-104, partial capture LOV-128M (completes image overlap with W5-047
G5-105, not needed overlap with W5-048
G5-106, partial capture LOV-126M (just a few framelets, overlaps with W5-048,049
G5-107, complete capture LOV-126H (overlaps with W5-050 slightly)
G5-108, partial cpature LOV-124M, complete capture 125H (slight overlap with W5-113 and overlap with W5-044,045)
G5-109, not needed overlap with W5-113, W5-045
G5-110, partial capture LOV-122M (completes image with overlap between W5-113,114
G5-111, partial capture LOV-106H, complete capture 104M, 105H
G5-112, partial capture LOV-103M, complete capture 104H
G5-113, partial capture LOV-102M, complete capture 103H
G5-114, partial capture LOV-101M, complete capture 102H
Another marathon day and another miracle of the head holding out…..
43 tapes (G5-145 is already done) left for Goldstone. Will we make it?
– Status, mid morning September 12, 2013
Running tape today, and am on death watch for the head. If we get through today it will be a miracle! Am running tape G5-104 right now and so far so good. The control track head, which is a second head on the head assembly used for servo control is on its last legs as well so methinks that when this head is done, it is done for good….
Here are the tapes done yesterday.
G5-092, partial capture LOV-157H (completes image, overlaps with M5-48,49, only captured 10 framelets)
G5-093, not captured, overlap with M5-049
G5-094, partial capture LOV-154M, complete capture 155H
G5-095, partial capture LOV-153M, complete capture 154H
G5-096, partial capture LOV-152M, partial capture 153H (completes image, overlaps with W5-099)
G5-097, partial capture LOV-151M (completes image, overlaps with W5-100,101)
G5-098, partial capture LOV-135H, 134H, complete capture 133M
G5-099, partial capture LOV-134H (completes image)
G5-100, partial capture LOV-132M, complete capture 133H
G5-101, partial capture LOV-131M, complete capture 132H
G5-102, partial capture LOV-130M, complete capture 131H
This is all for yesterday, got a lot of framelets captured yesterday and have now finished 104H.

LOIRP Status Report 11 September 2013

Dennis Wingo: Status, late afternoon September 11, 2013.
Well tape number G5-099 is on the machine right now!
I am going to hand around long enough today to run #100 so that we are that far though LOV. With this tape we are now 263 out of 478 tapes for LOV. Going to keep pushing as long as there are atoms on the leading edge of the head tips!
Status, Tuesday September 10, 2013 morning.
Oh wow, I just realized I have not updated the image capture data since G5-071. Well we are now through G5-091 as of last night so we are well past the half way point on the Goldstone captures. I have to do paperwork today so I may or may not get a few tapes in. The head is holding out. About one out of every four or five tapes has a few servo gaks that we will have to go back and redo once we get another head but I am getting some positive indication that we may get some private funding for a head. More on that should it materialize. If it does I am not pretty confident that we can finish LOV and do at least some of LO-IV. Every tape we get done gets us this much closer to the finish line. I feel like we are in a marathon but can now see a little peep of light at the end of the tunnel!
Images since the last report.
G5-072, partial capture LOV-192M, 191M, complete capture 193H
G5-073, partial capture LOV-191M, 190M, complete capture 192H
G5-074, partial capture LOV-190M (completes image), partial capture 189M, complete capture 191H
G5-075, partial capture LOV-189M, 188M, complete capture 190H
G5-076, partial capture LOV-189H
G5-077, partial capture LOV-187M, 186M, complete capture 188H
G5-078, partial capture LOV-186M (completes image), complete capture 187H
G5-079, partial capture LOV-185M, complete capture 186H
These were all the captures from last Friday, September 6th. There were n overlaps with any other tapes on Friday.
Captures yesterday.
G5-080, partial capture LOV-184M, complete capture 185H
G5-081, partial capture LOV-183M, complete capture 184H
G5-082, complete capture LOV-182M, partial capture 183H
G5-083, partial capture LOV-183H, 181M
G5-084, partial capture LOV-164H (completes capture, overlap with G5-054)
G5-085, partial capture LOV-162M (completes capture, overlap with G5-055)
G5-086, complete capture LOV-161M, 162H
G5-087, complete capture LOV-160M, partial capture 161H
G5-088, partial capture LOV-161H (completes image), complete capture 159M, partial capture 160H
G5-089, partial capture LOV-160H, complete capture 158M, partial capture 159H (completes image, overlaps with M5-046)
G5-90, not needed, overlaps with M5-046-047)
G5-91, not needed, overlaps with M5-048
Some of the overlaps here with Madrid tapes are from Madrid tapes captured earlier this year in order to make the large Copernicus mosaic.
So, here we are at about 62% of the way through our Goldstone tapes. We are still nursing our head to get as far as we can though on every tape I think that we are near the end. We have one more head with a bit of life left on it that we have found so if we get really lucky we will make it all the way through the Goldstone tapes. We have 66 tapes left of which probably 45 we have to play. Keep those positive waves coming!!