My understanding is that they are 99.999% certain that the moon walk
tape was recycled and reused.

I believe I have a machine to reproduce the tape. I do not have the
video decoder, but that could be done other ways (i.e. software).

www.Moonviews.com is a great example of what can be done if the tapes
are found.

As to the obsolete information, the Lunar Orbiter images have found
reuse, I believe, despite claims of being obsolete.

I'm also working my way towards (it's in house, but not at the top of
the heap) some Mt. St. Helens seismic tapes from around the time she
"blew" in what, 1980? They are the same basic format as the moonwalk
tapes, but a different speed.

Cheers,

Richard

On 2010-12-24 11:14 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Hopefully Richard Hess will weigh in on this. There is more to that
> story. As I understand it, a group of old NASA engineers have restored
> a machine that can recover that data and are still in process of
> trying to find the old tapes. As of the last time this was discussed
> on the Ampex List, they had not found the correct tapes but were not
> convinced that the correct tapes no longer exist. I think Richard
> knows more details.
>
> One point Mike makes that bears repeating:
>> While the information might be historical, it is all obsolete and of
>> little use to current and future work.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, December 24, 2010 10:20 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] oxide flaking off 206 207
>
>
>> On 12/23/2010 2:35 AM, Dan Nelson wrote:
>>> Ive got a bunch of 3M instrumentation 1/2 and 1 inch tape reslit to
>>> 1/4 inch
>>> that is doing the same thing ...... nice clear mylar base lol I
>>> sure hope all
>>> that NASA data recorded on that stuff is backed up.
>>> so the binder must be from same formula across the board for
>>> various end uses
>>> of 3M tape during that time period.
>>
>> Not only does NASA not have it data backed up, it doesn't even have
>> the machines necessary to play a lot of it back. While the
>> information might be historical, it is all obsolete and of little use
>> to current and future work. There was a presentation at the Early
>> Television Museum conference 2 years ago about the unsuccessful
>> search for the original data recording that would have the Apollo 11
>> moon walk video. A single Polaroid picture taken of the video
>> monitor on the converter in the Australian receiving station shows
>> how much more detail would be on that tape if it could be found
>> because the converted pictures had degraded so much during the
>> multiple relays from Australia. As the search began about 5 years
>> ago it was noted that the only machine that could play back that tape
>> was about to be dismantled and destroyed! They were able to save it
>> just in case that tape could ever be found.
>>
>>
>> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>>
>

--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.