Dennis Wingo end of day Thursday January 2, 2014
2014 what the hell happened, last thing I remember it was 1978!
Anyway, running tapes today. I came in on New Years Eve and made it through W4-085 and today I will finish with W4-095. Every tape was a looong capture. We have had some mechanical problems with the drive with bearings starting to wear out so had to replace an idler arm this morning and the entire Capstan drive motor on New Years eve. We have some new bearings ordered for the idler arm as all of the ones we have are kinda crappy now.
Glad that we originally had enough motors refurbished for two machines. We never really got both machines and demodulators working at the same time so the second machine is turning into a parts donor to keep this one running at peak efficiency.
As of today we have less than 500 total tapes to go, 489 to be exact. That is both Lunar Orbiter IV and Lunar Orbiter 1 tapes together. That is a major milestone for the project. If things go well tomorrow we will complete the captures for Lunar Orbiter IV Woomera tapes and will at least get the machine recalibrated for Goldstone.
Onward and upward!
Official website of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)