The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) Comparison of LO Copernicus Central Uplift with LRO LROC Mosaic. Poster presented by the LOIRP at the 2012 Lunar Science Forum
Comparing USGS, LOIRP, and LRO Images of Copernicus
Photos of the Ampex FR-900 and AR-550 Tape Drive Design Team
The Ampex FR-900 and AR-550 design teams. The FR-900 tape drives are the large units in the background and were used to record images sent back by the Lunar Orbiter missions. We have two refurbished FR-900s at the LOIRP at McMoons at NASA Ames Research Center. The smaller tape drive in front, the AR-550 is the flight version of the FR-900 and was flown aboard Skylab.
The Ampex AR-550 design team.
Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Featured in MountainView Voice
One giant leap for former fast-food joint, MountainView Voice
“Inside a shuttered McDonald’s at NASA Ames Research Center is a surreal scene: stacks of silver disc-shaped film canisters, an old reel-to-reel tape machine and the sound of NASA technicians talking during a 1960s mission to photograph the moon. What is going on is a sort of archeology of the digital age, or “techno-archeology” as it is called by Dennis Wingo, the man in charge of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery project. Wingo, CEO of Skycorp Inc., is the space industry entrepreneur who partnered with NASAWatch.com editor Keith Cowing to promote the project in 2008.”
Technoarchaeology: Learning New Things from Old Technology
Technologies that we’ve lost – and the quest to find them again, io9
“I asked NASA Watch’s Keith Cowing about this, and he explained that this is just an urban legend. The schematics are all still around, mostly on microfiche, and any ancient computer files just hold images of the original plans as opposed to now unreadably obsolete data. Still, while the knowledge wasn’t lost, it was certainly forgotten, and worse, it was badly organized. As Cowing – himself working on the rediscovery of old NASA documents with the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project – told me, all this archival information was basically abandoned until NASA’s started working on the Constellation program last decade, and now that that project has been forgotten the information is again beginning to gather dust. If there is a point of disconnect, it’s more in terms of how we understand the information and the different ways in which we approach science forty-five years on:”
“If anything’s missing, it’s actually more the explanation. I mean there is some stuff that will never be found again, but it’s all there, and the stuff that isn’t you can sort of figure out backwards. Sometimes you need the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone, because sometimes the way we think today is not the way they thought back then. Sometimes you need an index or a document that explains how they did things or their nomenclature. That’s the one thing that’s sometimes hard to find is what I call a bridge document, an answer guide to how they did the thing back in the sixties. There’s no FAQ.”
What It Is Like To See Images From The Past
Keith’s note: This pic from the film “Contact” is what it was like when we got our first image – “Earthrise” – in 2008. I was watching over the team’s shoulders via iChat from the east coast and the image appeared – in reverse B&W – we saw the ‘white’ of space and the ‘black’ of the Moon. And then we flipped it. Awesome – like using a time machine to grab something from the past. Just like “Contact”.
Below is the scene from “Contact” where a 1936 TV broadcast – sent back to Earth by an alien intelligence as a way to say “message received” – is slowly decoded.
Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Has Started Up Again at McMoons
The team at McMoons (Bldg 596 at NASA Ames Research Park) got the prime FR-900 tape drive up and running today at full capacity and has already downloaded new images. We have some new tricks up our sleeves – and we’ll soon be showing you the best pics yet – plus some familiar ones clearer than before.
Buzz Aldrin Visits Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project
On 6 January 2012, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin visited the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) located at Building 596 aka “McMoons” at the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field, CA. Pictured (L to R): LOIRP Engineer Ken Zin, LOIRP Co-Lead Dennis Wingo, LOIRP Student Intern Neulyn Moss, Buzz Aldrin, LOIRP Image Specialist Austin Epps. Behind them is the FR-900 Tape drive restored and enhanced by LOIRP to play back the original analog data tapes generated by the five Lunar Orbiter missions in the 1960s. Larger image
Buzz Aldrin takes a moment to autograph our FR-900 tape drive. Larger image
LOIRP: Back in the Saddle Again
After being on hiatus for a few months the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) will soon be back in action retrieving imagery from original Lunar Orbiter program data tapes and vintage tape drives that we have restored and enhanced. Armed with new software that will greatly enhance our image recovery process and other improvements, we should be able to produce new versions of original Lunar Orbiter imagery on a regular basis. Of course, we’ll be posting all of it here.
“Apollo 18”, LOIRP, and Conspiracies
Apollo 18: A Review And Interview With Technical Advisor Gerry Griffin
“People’s fascination with space conspiracies has always intrigued me. Facts are irrelevant once someone has made up their mind about something – usually involving the big evil government covering something up – usually evidence of aliens visiting us. I have some personal experience with this via my involvement with the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) which is being run on a low budget basis outside the gate at NASA Ames Research Center in a McDonalds hamburger joint that closed years ago. The building was free and we were not fussy. With my co-lead Dennis Wingo and a lot of help from NASA and volunteers, we managed to restore images from the original 40+ year analog data tapes at unprecedented resolution when compared to what people saw in the 1960s. More information can be found at the official LOIRP website at https://moonviews.wpenginepowered.com
I bring up LOIRP for one reason: the nature of the original photos and what people imagine they see. Unlike most planetary missions, the Lunar Orbiter probes took their images on conventional film which was chemically processed in lunar orbit, scanned electronically, and the data sent back to Earth by radio. While the automated photo developing process itself was amazing, it had flaws. Often times problems with the chemicals or the gears would leave blobs and strange shapes on the images. ANyone who has spent time looking at the photos knows what I mean.
Well … some people with over active imaginations have concluded that a secret government agency obliterated certain things to keep us from learning the truth (whatever that might be). Secret moon bases I guess. Others see strange shapes which they have decided are bulldozers or cities. What they never bother to check is the scale of these photos. If there were indeed bulldozers on the Moon these Lunar Orbiter photos they’d be 10 miles high.
When we were getting ready to release the images some of the nutty websites got word and came up with all manner of zany conspiracy theories. My favorite was linking the fact that we were doing this in “McDonalds” with “McDonnell Douglas” and some evil dark conspiracy. The fact that they can’t even note the difference in the spelling of these names says a lot. They also made a lot of the fact that ARC’s Center Director is a former USAF Brigadier General. Oh yes, and there is that pirate flag I hung in the window – that didn’t help either.”
First Earthrise Photo Taken 45 Years Ago Today
Keith’s note: 45 Years ago today, on 23 August 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 snapped the first photo of Earth as seen from lunar orbit (Larger view). While a remarkable image at the time, the full resolution of the image was never retrieved from the data stored from the mission. In 2008, this earthrise image was restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. We obtained the original data tapes from the mission (the last surviving set) and restored original FR-900 tape drives to operational condition using both 60s era parts and modern electronics. The following links provide background on the image, its restoration, and reactions to its release.
Here is a comparison of the full image in its original, familiar context (higher res)(print quality). You can download a 1.2 GB version from NASA here. Note: this is a very large file.
– Newly Restored Lunar Orbiter Image of Earth and Moon (Detail)
– How the Photo Was Taken
– House of Representatives Honors Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project
– Nimbus II and Lunar Orbiter 1 Imagery: A New Look at Earth in 1966
– Dumpster Diving for Science, Science Magazine
– What Lunar Orbiter 1 Was Seeing on 23 August 1966
Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Mentioned by NASA Advisory Council
The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) and its official website moonviews.com were mentioned during the activities of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) during its meetings at NASA Ames Research Center this week. The first slide was shown by Lars Perkins as part of his presentation to the NAC on 4 August 2011 about the activities of the NAC’s Education and Public Outreach Committee. The second slide is from a presentation by NASA Lunar Science Institute Director Yvonne Pendleton during the EPO committee’s meeting on 2 August 2011.
More VIPs Visit McMoons
(L to R) Bob Richards, CEO, Moon Express, Keith Cowing, SpaceRef/LOIRP Co-Lead, Dennis Wingo, SkyCorp/LOIRP Co-Lead, George Whitesides, CEO, Virgin Galactic. Photo taken at the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) facility at Building 596 (aka “McMoons”) at the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field, CA on 29 July 2011.