Dennis Wingo: The project is moving forward. We have found a source (former Ampex Field Engineering Head) of further documentation for the drives. We are working out how to get this information to us this week. I have also added Charlie Byrne to our mailing list here as he is the original progenitor of our entire project with his 1965 memo regarding the utility of the analog data. Charlie has graciously offered to help and has a funded LASER contract relative to the film.
When we get images we will be sharing them with him for analysis. We have almost completed replacing the power supply capacitors (except for a shipment that got sent to my office in Alabama rather than to the lab in CA) and we have found procedures whereby we have calibrated the power supplies. Pictures of the machine with updated parts to follow.
We have a quote and timeline from VMI on the heads and are anxiously awaiting any word on the funding for the heads. We have sent the pinch rollers ( a mechanical drive component for the Capstan drive made of rubber) to a refurbishment house and will have a quote for that this week and have them back in about two or three weeks.
The folks at JPL have been incredibly helpful as well and have set up a private website for us that has everything that we need for our submittals to the Planetary Data System. Thanks to Sue Lavoie and the folks down there for being incredibly responsive.
We have our known good head and we have found two others that are in good enough shape to use for testing of the machine.
Kenneth Williams figured out a great way to mount smaller new caps where the big caps went.
We are also beginning debug and alignment procedures for the drive’s subsystems this week.
I am in Alabama this week and will be back on the evening of the 11th.
Official website of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)