McMoon — Ampex Tape Reels at NASA Ames Pirate McDonalds

Canon PowerShot G9

ƒ/2.8

7.4 mm

1/60

250

Behind the counter of an abandoned McDonalds lie 48,000 lbs of 70mm tape… the only copy of extremely high-resolution images of the moon.

These tapes were recorded 40 years ago by Lunar Orbiter 1 to map the lunar surface to plan landing spots for Apollo 11 onward. They have never been seen by the public because at the time, they were classified as they reveal the extreme precision of our spy satellites. Instead, all we have ever seen are the grainy photo-of-a-photo images that were released to the public.

The spacecraft did not ship this film back to Earth. Instead, they developed the film on the Lunar Orbiter and then raster scanned the negatives with a 5 micron spot (200 lines/millimeter resolution) and beamed the data back to Earth using yet-to-be-patented-by-others lossless analog compression. Three ground stations on Earth (one was in Madrid) recorded the transmissions on these magnetic tapes.

Recovering the data has proven to be very difficult, requiring technological archeology. The only working version of the Ampex tape player ($300K when new) was discovered in a chicken coop and restored with the help of the original designer. There is only one person on Earth who still refurbishes these tape heads, and he is retiring this year. The skills to read this data archive are on the cusp of disappearing forever.

Some of the applications of this project, beyond accessing the best images of the moon ever taken, are to look for new landing sites for the new Google Lunar X-Prize robo-landers, and to compare the new craters on the moon today to 40 years ago, a measure of micrometeorite flux and risk to future lunar operations.

52 responses to “McMoon — Ampex Tape Reels at NASA Ames Pirate McDonalds”

Automatt

Sep 22, 2008 at 4:51 am

This is fascinating. But why are they in the kitchen of a McDonalds? Also, who sleeps in the sleeping bag?

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!MimosaMicheMichelle!

Sep 22, 2008 at 5:20 am

I hope there are a lot of safety measures in case there is a fire. That is a lot of important tape to keep safe.

Automatt, be curious and see the preceding photo.

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kirainet

Sep 22, 2008 at 5:40 am

OMG! I wonder if in 50 years it will be difficult to read jpeg files 😉

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AGrinberg

Sep 22, 2008 at 6:02 am

Great story – I supposed the last place a spy would look for classified materials would be in a McDonalds!

Here in Pacifica we have an abandoned KFC if you guys need any more room.

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Todd Huffman

Sep 22, 2008 at 7:47 am

Throw some google dorks at it. If that’s not 20% time I don’t know what is.

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jitze

Sep 22, 2008 at 8:10 am

Wow! Real Ampex 70mm stuff – those were rare and short lived – the de facto standard went to the half-inch tape which effectively orphaned the 70 mm species. Those reels of 70mm were really heavy and dangerous when used as computer peripherals (as opposed to video recorders) due to spinning inertia which was known to occasionaly snap the drive shaft. Result was to have the still spinning reel drop to the floor, bounce once and then go whizzing across the computer room leaving a trail of destruction in its wake if sleepy operators on graveyard shift were not quick enough to take evasive action.

I’m surprised there is anybody at all still left who can get them read. They were already obsolete in the mid 60’s IIRC.

Thanks for the nostalgia – I hope the data recovery is successful.

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The Rocketeer

Sep 22, 2008 at 10:11 am

That looks like there must be 24 tons of tape there! What an exciting project.

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Resh B.

Sep 22, 2008 at 10:19 am

Such an interesting read! What has McDonalds got to do with this? Also, curious to know how you’re connected with this project.

And I thought I had problems organizing all my images… 🙂

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biotron

Sep 22, 2008 at 10:24 am

@jitze – superb image you evoked there of those reels running rampant.

i love the sleeping bag on the floor. like – "i’m not moving out until we’ve finished"…

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sprklg

Sep 22, 2008 at 11:03 am

Very impressive!

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.schtieF

Sep 22, 2008 at 11:30 am

you have any url, for this project? and will the data be made public?

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Todd Huffman

Sep 22, 2008 at 5:15 pm

@jitze Thanks for the info, reels of magnetic tape snapping shaft and flying across the room is an intense mental image!

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angry shock

Sep 22, 2008 at 8:20 pm

This is an extraordinary thing going on… as extraordinary as it is that all this precious documents had been abandoned and forgotten for so long… and as extraordinary as it is that only one person on earth knows how to refurbish these tapes heads. (on a side note: I hope they will pay him accordingly.)

About two weeks ago, I discovered with real sadness that Google Moon (www.google.com/moon) had replaced the total zoom in of the moon for real satelite images of the Apollo missions (Remember it showed a big piece of cheese, to add to the hypothesis that the moon was made of cheese and they were trying to find out what cheese it was made of =) ). The change was somewhere last year. I wish they could have saved a place where you could still see that… it was nice.

Btw, Google moon nowadays is pretty chaotic, too loosely put the information, the navigation is not intuitive, you zoom in, zoom out don’t know where you are or how you got where you are or how to move out.

Save the Tapes
(go get someone to print out some badges with that on)

ps: who knows, perhaps in between of the refurbishing they see aliens coming and going… or even waving to the camera.

pss: May this be witnessed as the beginning of Space Voyeurism?

(good comment mimosa on the security measures for fire prevention)

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benjiman

Sep 22, 2008 at 11:07 pm

This is the Ultimate Happy Meal!

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jurvetson

Sep 23, 2008 at 2:45 am

Happy, Happy, joy, joy. Made us pull a Hammy. =)

jitze – I just knew you’d have a great story to share here!

I just uploaded a video tour of the tape player and environs. (There is a bit of background noise as the tape drive was operating.) The speaker is the "technical archaeologist" who lives in the McDonalds it seems. The other voices midway are from NASA spacecraft designers.

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pegleg000

Sep 23, 2008 at 9:10 am

Neat stuff!
After a little search on "lunar orbiter", I found that the 5 lunar orbiters made a total of 2180 hi res and 882 med res images. The claimed max resolution was ~1m, when the vehicle was at periselene, about 40km. I’m not sure if that’s the "real" res or the one for public consumption. Anyway, here’s a useful stat – given the number of images, and the estimated weight of the tapes, each image weighs nearly 16 lbs!!! Think of that the next time you heft your Canon ;-). (I obviously had too much time tonight – getting psyched up for a root canal tomorrow!-)

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photos_FA

Sep 23, 2008 at 5:02 pm

Oh I hope google will improve google moon then!

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delightful governor

Sep 23, 2008 at 9:39 pm

that is so cool, it almost seems like a joke or movie plot. the most interesting part is the lossless analog compression. what is the total data size raw and uncompressed?

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DixonTJ

Sep 25, 2008 at 3:59 am

Great stuff here Steve!

BTW, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend "How Apollo Flew to the Moon" by W. David Woods. Get this along with the twin set (LM and CM) of "Virtual Apollo" by Scott P. Sullivan for a visual reference (although I believe the LM version is now out of print or being scarfed up by every new venture engineer working on their version of the lander).

What comes through the detailed account and engineering analysis in these books is simultaneously the base simplicity of the missions at a high level, yet the layers of complexity required to make them a reality–it is a real touchstone for how effective, large-scale project management can be when driven by a healthy dose of human emotion and courage.

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Erik Charlton

Sep 25, 2008 at 3:59 am

Thought everyone would like a peek at the output –>

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bungo77

Sep 26, 2008 at 9:08 am

Thanks for drawing our attention to this.

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Marwael

Sep 26, 2008 at 7:07 pm

all i see in your peek is the same grainy crap quality as always – you are a bunch of happy-mealers who deserve to stay where you are.
Enjoy!

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jurvetson

Nov 14, 2008 at 4:59 pm

LOIRP has now announced this project, and so I can make this page public (it was private to flickr friends before). Here is a cropped subset of the first image retrieved:

(full size)

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jimheid

Nov 14, 2008 at 6:40 pm

This is *maddeningly* cool.

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AGrinberg

Nov 15, 2008 at 7:06 am

Saw this in the SF Chronicle, and immediately thought of your McDonalds photo!

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moonmeister

Nov 15, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Huge kudos to the team carrying this out. As someone who has used the LO photos for years to help describe the Apollo orbital photos (history.nasa.gov/afj), I’m astonished at the improvement in resolution and contrast in these images. I am really looking forward to getting hold of the improved imagery.

I hope this will spur NASA onto recovering more of the taped archives they hold before they crumble to dust. Though the Apollo 11 TV source tapes are missing, we know the audio tapes from the missions are available but the machinery to play them is falling into disrepair.

Perhaps too, it is time for Google to produce a GoogleEarth-type of interface to allow us to place the available imagery into context – from Lunar Orbiter, Clementine and the current and future mission around the Moon.

Finally, thank you, dixontj93060, for the kind words about my book, How Apollo Flew to the Moon’.

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Vanita

Nov 19, 2008 at 1:17 am

I wonder what’s been hidden in the abandoned Burger King…
‘-}

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CatsFive

Nov 26, 2008 at 5:11 am

Yeah but… explain the sleeping bag?

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Al Sargent

Nov 26, 2008 at 11:18 am

Fascinating story, Steve. Would love to hear sometime about how you were involved in finding these tapes and how they wound up in an abandoned McDonald’s…

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jessengin3

Dec 28, 2008 at 7:59 am

How’s about someone go and check out the abandoned McDonalds located in Industry, CA off the conspiracy streets of Gale Ave. and Green Dr. It’s located in an roundabout U shaped street; major cross street Azusa Ave. maybe footage of Fry-Guys will be found; hey what ever happened to Grimace? I know, The Hambuglar hides them all.

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xouroborus

Apr 9, 2009 at 4:24 am

NASA’s early lunar images, in a new light.
Great story. Thanks for the inside look!

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jurvetson

Apr 9, 2009 at 4:01 pm

thanks… Good to see another recovered image in that LA Times piece.
The 800-million-year-old Copernicus crater, 2 miles deep and 60 miles wide:

CatsFive – the sleeping bag is the iconic sign of a dedicated worker

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biotron

Apr 9, 2009 at 5:07 pm

splendid!

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xouroborus

Apr 9, 2009 at 7:03 pm

Image Collection: From a Garage to NASA

more pics of the quest!!

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jimheid

Jun 16, 2009 at 2:26 am

Was telling my brother about this spectacular project (and your spectacular photostream) and stumbled on this: a presentation at Apple’s WWDC 2009 by Dennis Wingo on this project.

I’d have *loved* to have seen that!

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Kirk Fraser

Aug 30, 2009 at 9:46 pm

When I was a mainframe computer operator years ago, I was told the tapes we were using had to be rewritten every 5 years or they’d lose data due to magnetic degradation. Of course images are less sensitive to random losses than corporate financial data but it makes me wonder how long the McData will be useful? Is it still worth reading? Is someone really going to publish a better map of the moon than National Geographic did – before people settle up there? What is the real meaning of the woman on the moon in Revelation 12 and where will she be standing?

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jurvetson

Sep 2, 2009 at 3:02 am

Technology Review just printed a photo essay on this project.

And if you missed my earlier post, this is the tape recovery effort at McMoon:

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keithcowing

Jan 10, 2011 at 3:56 am

The official website for the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) is http://www.moonviews.com – images, news, project history, participatory exploration – and more.

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bike-R

Jul 3, 2012 at 5:08 pm

Oh WOW, can I get a Large Fry to go? Seriuosly, this is a real grass roots effort and hope it continues well into the future…………..with no SHAKE_UPS:))

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jurvetson

Jul 12, 2012 at 4:37 am

I just checked in with them today…

and sure enough, they were busy at work trying to get the tape drive to behave.

They have recovered quite a but more… Updates here

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ukweli

Jul 12, 2012 at 12:48 pm

Marvelous! Just when I think I know about the weirdest human endeavour currently underway. Thanks so much for your wildly interesting photo stream Steve.

These images of the moon are awesome!

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dsfportree

Jul 12, 2012 at 2:49 pm

But this is project isn’t unique, as best I can tell from what McMoon has published so far. USGS owns the same material and has done very similar work with it in recent years. Everything we have has been scanned. One of my students worked with the digital data based on USGS scans of LO films to identify pyroclastic deposits in several places on the lunar surface, for example. This USGS work has been showcased at Lunar and Planetary Science Conferences and appears in the scientific literature. I’m not here to attack what you are doing, just to point out that it might not be unique. I’m not sure whether you’ve had any contact with USGS on this, but it might be worth your time.

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jurvetson

Jul 12, 2012 at 3:29 pm

I am not working on any of this, and so the more background the better. It’s al new to me. Thanks.

Correct me if I am wrong, but USGS scanned a copy of the original, and this new project is gaining greater resolution as well as the formerly unscanned Lunar Orbiter II images (at the request of USGS). Here is a comparison of the two that they pulled together:

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olafsen

Jul 12, 2012 at 3:41 pm

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/torek] JPEG will be fine, but think to all people using RAW files…

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Riccardo Mori

Jul 12, 2012 at 4:00 pm

This is just amazing. Amazing amazing amazing.

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J Dueck

Jul 12, 2012 at 4:13 pm

The "format" of the pics isn’t really a problem; if the pictures existed in digital form at all then we would be able to decode them with comparatively little trouble. The problem is the physicial medium.

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bike-R

Jul 12, 2012 at 6:11 pm

DIGITAL ROT…………..will affect future genrations more so of data seekers and with all our pics and info being stored on CD and memory cards and locked in trashed PC’s andl laptops and cellphones, who know how much will be lost?

gizmodo.com/digitalrot/

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offtothemoon

Jul 13, 2012 at 5:06 am

Steve

Thanks for coming by yesterday, we are back to busily scanning images today. Come on back by.

As for the comments that what we have is not unique, I would beg to differ. First, we would not be able to do our job without all of the hard work from the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the folks at USGS. Reprinting my comments from another forum on why our data is of higher dynamic range than what the USGS has:

___________________________________________________________________

There is no such thing as undegraded film, just as there is no such thing as undegraded tape. I have been doing archival retrieval work since the mid 1980’s and one of my first jobs in this area was digitizing several million microfilm records from the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force.

I wrote original papers on the relative degradation of Silver Halide film vs the Diazo process. I was a test engineer on the equipment that digitized thousands of aperture cards of microfilm per hour.

This project was DSREDS/EDCARS and was the first terabyte class document scanning project in history.

When NASA recorded the images on the 2" video tape they recorded them in "pre demodulation" format. This means that the analog scans of the 70mm film on the spacecraft were combined with the digital telemetry from the spacecraft and transmitted to the Earth.

On the Earth the images were written to the tape drives before they were demodulated and then the demodulated data was displayed on a kinescope that generated the 35mm film that you have at USGS.

The pre demodulated data on the tapes, we have recreated by using modern technology to demodulate the analog scans and telemetry data. The analog data is digitized at 16 bits and 5 megasamples per second, approximately 10x overscan from the original frequency domain of the analog image information, coupled with a 65,535 dynamic range, approximately a factor of 6,500 above the dynamic range of the original data.

This is possible due to the cheap cost of hard drives today.

We have shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that the images produced from our method has superior grey scale resolution than the best of the USGS film scans. We work in a very collegial fashion with the folks at USGS and it is unfortunate that you take this belligerent and factually incorrect tact in your responses to this article.

The pre demodulated format preserves entirely the original quality of the data from the spacecraft. The demodulator that we use takes the FM signal and demodulates that. It is further demodulated from a "Vestigial Side Band" (VSB) format which can be considered to be an early form of analog compression.

This preserves the data in its original full dynamic range. The degradation that we get today are from flaws in the analog tape that create transitory artifacts but do not effect the dynamic range or resolution of the images.

In our reproductions of the Apollo 14 landing site that we published we were honored when one of the flight controllers from that mission emailed us and said that if they had our images in front of them when the astronauts were looking for the crater that was their main mission objective, they would have found it.

Our images clearly showed a rock that the crew was standing on one side of when the crater was on the other side. This was the major objective of the mission that was missed because they only had the images derived from film at that time.

We are quite proud of our work and it has been honored for its quality and for our work to save our legacy from the Apollo era. The USGS also does great work and I have great admiration for the folks in Flagstaff

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spotcutter

Jul 13, 2012 at 10:31 am

Would you like fries with that?

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jurvetson

Mar 10, 2013 at 6:45 pm

and now you can help crowdfund the project

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McMoon — Ampex Tape Reels at NASA Ames Pirate McDonalds

52 responses to “McMoon — Ampex Tape Reels at NASA Ames Pirate McDonalds”

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