First close-up lunar pictures no longer "lost in space"

[Smersh]

I just found this posted by Associated Press on their Youtube channel. Apparently, some private citizens have recovered loads (tens of thousands? Not sure - there are about 1500 reels apparently) of early close-up Moon pictures taken by NASA's early orbiters and are currently being restored in, of all places, a former McDonald's restaurant.

Mankind's first up-close photos of the lunar landscape have been rescued from four decades of dusty storage. As AP's Haven Daley reports, they've been restored to such a high quality that they rival anything taken by modern cameras. (April 20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwbw1vhtZ0g

 

[michaelmozina]

Hey cool! At least none of the footage went "McMissing". Some of those tape machines looked positively prehistoric.

 

[spacelover123]

Its amazing that those photos were able to be restored, rather than being dumped out with the local trash. But will these new photos tell us anything that we don't know about the moon? Anything new? I give my sincere congrats to those restoring the old photos, but will these photos help us for our next journey to the great unknown? Or at least the moon?

 

[michaelmozina]

Its amazing that those photos were able to be restored, rather than being dumped out with the local trash. But will these new photos tell us anything that we don't know about the moon? Anything new? I give my sincere congrats to those restoring the old photos, but will these photos help us for our next journey to the great unknown? Or at least the moon?

Well, look at it this way, at least we will have the chance to find out if it will help us return to the moon, or at least allow us to study the moon's changes over a longer period of time. With all the money that was spent collecting these images, it would be a pity if they were forever lost.

 

[Smersh]

Well, look at it this way, at least we will have the chance to find out if it will help us return to the moon, or at least allow us to study the moon's changes over a longer period of time. With all the money that was spent collecting these images, it would be a pity if they were forever lost.

To be honest, I was quite surprised that they were even in danger of being forever lost. What's the point of spending all that money (as you mentioned) to send orbiters to take all those photos, only to store them away for nearly 50 years then lose track of them (or even throw them out with the rubbish?)

As for studying the Moon's changes over the years, it's mentioned in the video that meteor strikes that have occured since the photos were taken are one thing that could be logged. From the brief shots shown in the video of the lunar surface, the pictures looked incredibly clear I thought (following computer enhancement I'd imagine.)

Btw, in case you're reading this, thanks to Picard (friend on another board) for drawing this story to our attention.

 

[spacelover123]

Quoted: To be honest, I was quite surprised that they were even in danger of being forever lost. What's the point of spending all that money (as you mentioned) to send orbiters to take all those photos, only to store them away for nearly 50 years the lose track of them (or even throw them out with the rubbish?)

This is also another point of matter. If such large sums were spent on these photos, why is it that they were "collecting dust"? It is stated that the photos were hidden in a back part of NASA, why would NASA hold these photos? :?:

 

[aphh]

These recordings have been made using slow-scan technology, which allowed pretty high resolution to be recorded way back in the 60ies. What is interesting is that the TV transmission from Apollo 11 used the same slow-scan technology.

Here on earth the slow-scan transmission from Apollo was converted to NTSC broadcast by simply filming the slow-scan monitor with a NTSC camera, a bit like the video camera saw the moon images on the monitors that they were restoring in that YouTube video.

A few years back there were articles that NASA had lost the original Apollo 11 slow-scan tapes. Individuals doing this restoration project, however, told in another article, that they had found also the original Apollo 11 slow-scan tapes.

Problem was that no working recorder existed to playback slow-scan footage, but with a lot of effort they were able to restore atleast one slow-scan recorder to working order.

They should know whether we will be able to watch the original Apollo 11 transmissions also with a lot higher quality than the original broadcast.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I posted a story about this a while back. I'll see if I can find the thread; it had a link to the article about it.

Found it; here's the thread, the link to the LA Times story is in the first post.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16995

 

[aphh]

To be honest, I was quite surprised that they were even in danger of being forever lost. What's the point of spending all that money (as you mentioned) to send orbiters to take all those photos, only to store them away for nearly 50 years then lose track of them (or even throw them out with the rubbish?)

As for studying the Moon's changes over the years, it's mentioned in the video that meteor strikes that have occured since the photos were taken are one thing that could be logged. From the brief shots shown in the video of the lunar surface, the pictures looked incredibly clear I thought (following computer enhancement I'd imagine.)

Btw, in case you're reading this, thanks to Picard (friend on another board) for drawing this story to our attention.

This sort of vast data catalogueing and analysis with a foresight belongs to University, not a government bureau IMO. In University eager students would have poured through the material and made relevant archiving and analysis so that the data was readable in 50 years or so for future scientists aswell.

Smersh, if I were you, I'd contact people doing this restoration and asked about any anomalies they might have seen in the material. These are high resolution images taken from altitude of 50 nautical miles and even below that, so any feature that shouldn't be there would be clearly visible in the images.

They seem to have all the material at their disposal, so they would know about things that matter, if you get my drift

 

[Smersh]

I posted a story about this a while back. I'll see if I can find the thread; it had a link to the article about it.

Found it; here's the thread, the link to the LA Times story is in the first post.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16995

Thanks for the link to the other thread Wayne and sorry I didn't notice it (I did a search in case anything had already been posted but didn't see it.) Maybe the threads could be merged?

... Smersh, if I were you, I'd contact people doing this restoration and asked about any anomalies they might have seen in the material. These are high resolution images taken from altitude of 50 nautical miles and even below that, so any feature that shouldn't be there would be clearly visible in the images.

They seem to have all the material at their disposal, so they would know about things that matter, if you get my drift

Hi Aphh, I'm not absolutely certain, but I get the feeling you may have been Googling around on other boards. As to the possible anomalies to which you may refer, I'll leave the contacting the people doing the restoration to enterprising members on those other boards I'm talking about. (I'm lazy anyway and I'd prefer to remain a neutral spectator! )

I'm hoping the restored images will all be available in an archive online somewhere eventually - that would be fantastic!

 

[aphh]

Hi Aphh, I'm not absolutely certain, but I get the feeling you may have been Googling around on other boards.

No, not really, but if we think about it, it is just like the person says on the YouTube video; those are probably the best images from the lunar orbit there is.

So if there are "huge objects" on the Moon, as many have insisted, that have been "photoshopped away from official images of the Moon", then these people now would know about said huge things on the moon.

Then there is the Apollo 11 slow-scan material, that NASA simply couldn't find a year or two ago. There were even articles about that search here on Space.com. And now these people appear to have it.

Guess what? I think Nasa simply "couldn't find" the original Apollo 11 slow-scan tapes, because they realized they had no working recorder to playback the tapes. Even if the tapes were in tact, without recorder to playback the tapes they would have looked like fools to the world.

"Yes, we actually found the tapes, but unfortunately last 2-inch slow-scan recorder was wrecked in 1985, so we're not going to be able to show you Neil and Buzz on the Moon in high quality"

I don't know, but it is interesting. I can hardly wait to see the images.

 

[JonClarke]

Sigh. Lunar Orbiter 1 did not provide the first close ups of the Moon. Ranger 7 and Luna 9 did that, and their images were much closer than those of Lunar Orbiter 1.

Despite some statements above, the government archives are the best places to store these data. Universities don't have the resources or the role for this sort of data retrival.

Why weren't the images better looked after? Because once they had served their initial purpose they lost their immediate importance. People often don't often realise the importance of documentary until decades later. And I don't think anyone at the time realised it would be 50 years before people would start showing a serious interest in the Moon again.

Jon

 

[3488]

I agree Jon.

Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first to provide a decent high resolution global map of the moon (much of which is still of immense scientific importance), but certainly was not the first to obtain the closest images.

Fortunately the correct thing is being done by the finders, by rescanning the lot & making copies on DVDs & other modern media. NASA should pay them or at least reward them IMO.

We tend to forget how remarkable the Lunar Orbiters were. Looking at much of the material, the quality is so remarkable that perhaps a craft from the 1980s or even 1990s would have been thought to have taken them, let alone craft from the 1960s.

Who would have thought that a restaurant built for McDonalds would serve a very useful role for mankind????

Andrew Brown.

 

[aphh]

Despite some statements above, the government archives are the best places to store these data.

Standard government archiving methods would have landed these tapes in the trashbin along with the recorders that were used to record the data.

It is a miracle we get to see it and scientists get to study them.