posted 11-01-2006 11:01 PM               

For years 'lost' tapes recording data from the Apollo 11 Moon landing have been stored underneath the seats of Australian physics students. A recent search has uncovered them.

They were nearly thrown out with the rubbish. But a last minute search instead has scientists in Western Australia dusting off several boxes of 'lost' NASA tapes which record surface conditions on the Moon just after Neil Armstrong stepped into space history on 21 July 1969.

posted 11-03-2006 07:32 PM               

Vintage Apollo space missions tapes uncovered at a university in Western Australia are not what a team of experts are trying to locate.

"These aren't the tapes we're looking for," said John Sarkissian, operations scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's (CSIRO) Parkes Radio Observatory in Parkes, Australia.

The story that is now making the rounds, Sarkissian added, refers to copies of one-inch magnetic tapes recorded at the Carnarvon station in Western Australia. They contain data from Apollo 11's Early Apollo Surface Experiments Package (EASEP) -- a set of scientific instruments emplaced at the Apollo 11 landing site by the astronauts.

posted 01-23-2007 09:14 AM               

SpectrumData to Store and Recover NASA Data From the Moon

WA-based data recovery and specialist data storage company SpectrumData has been chosen to store valuable NASA data from the moon.

The data was gathered from the Lunar Dust Detector Experiment (DDE) conducted during the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 moon landings. It provides valuable information on dust and temperatures on the moon, shortly after Neil Armstrong stepped into space history in
July 1969.

SpectrumData assisted in the retrieval of the 200 magnetic tapes, marked "NASA Manned Space Center", which have been stored bythe physics department at Curtin University of Technology in Perth for the past 37 years.

The tapes are now stored in SpectrumData's purpose-built security vault in Technology Park, Bentley where they will undergo further analysis and processing.

SpectrumData's Chief Executive Officer Guy Holmes said given the magnetic reel tapes used to record the data are of a high quality, recovery of the lunar information should be feasible.

"From our initial assessment of the tapes they appear to be in relatively good condition for their age and we'll spend the next few weeks inspecting the integrity of the tapes for future recovery of the data," said Guy.

"We will sort them into logical order from day one of the moon mission through to the end of transmission of data from the moon. The labels on the tapes, many of which are fading, will then be digitally photographed to preserve the content."

"All tapes will then be barcoded, a catalogue will be built and we'll perform a detailed media integrity audit to determine the condition of the magnetic media. Pending the results of the audit we'll then move forward with recovering the data from the tapes," he said.

According to NASA's website the data represented, "the only long-term information on the lunar surface environment, and as such are ideal for planning future lunar missions. And that's what is hoped the data can be used for once recovered.

A group of scientists at the Kennedy Space Centre researching future landings and take offs from the moon and other planets such as Mars currently only have theoretical models and guesswork to base their studies on.

Access to the hard facts and statistics sourced by the DDE will assist these scientists with their work, allowing them to set parameters and potentially assist in future trips to the Moon and Mars.

Data collected by the DDE is a record of what happened on the moon after the take off of the astronauts on the lunar module back to Earth. It provides a daily record of the environmental conditions and changes taking place at the lunar site after the Eagle landed safely in the Sea of Tranquility.

The most important data were collected after the lunar module blasted off the surface later that day, leaving the still-running instrumentation behind. The information showed that scientific instruments could be affected by setting them up around landing or take-off sites.

Tape #25321 is the most important tape and provides dust data covering Armstrong
and Aldrin's stay on the moon, their departure in the Lunar Module and the next three Earth days.

The tape contains data from Day 202 Hour 08:39:19 to Day 206 Hour 17:38:00, recorded at seven global receiving stations: Ascension Island, Carnarvon Australia, Canary Islands, Goldstone California, Honeysuckle Creek Australia, Merritt Island Florida and Corpus Christi Texas.

Australian Physicist Dr Brian O'Brien invented the DDE while on a plane flying back to Houston from a Los Angeles Apollo meeting. At an altitude of 35,000 feet, he sketched an initial design on the back of the drink coaster that came with his Scotch. He refined the final design on a white paper napkin that came with the nuts and formally submitted the proposal to NASA on 24 January 1966.

In addition to storing data from the moon for NASA, SpectrumData is also currently undertaking several other data recovery missions of national and international significance.

As well as many Australian projects, these include projects for the Ethiopian Government, Sri Lankan Government, New Zealand Government, Japanese Government and exploration companies in Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand and Malaysia.

SpectrumData opened a data management facility in Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2006 and will open another in Wellington, New Zealand in January 2007. In May 2006, SpectrumData also commissioned WA's first internationally certified Class 100 "clean room" for data recovery purposes.