Australian footage of Neil Armstrong's moon walk

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100928/sc_afp/usspaceastronomymoonaustralia_20100928094640

by wiks • 16 years ago

40 17 16 years ago

news.yahoo.com

mikek• 16 years ago

Is it just me or is it amazing to think that such important footage could be lost and left to become damaged?

zandorg• 16 years ago

I think when it was on video, it got erased. When it was on film, they kept it because they couldn't erase it...

stcredzero• 16 years ago

Many of the NPR audio archives were at risk because it turned out that the audio tape formulations of the 70's were defective. Many CDRs and writable DVDs use dyes that will become corrupt in about a decade. Charles Stross has the early 21st century comprise a "digital dark ages" in some of his books because of a proliferation of proprietary/DRM formats.

It is both amazing and understandable.

pavel_lishin• 16 years ago

" Charles Stross has the early 21st century comprise a "digital dark ages" in some of his books"

Which ones? I'm trying to read more of his stuff, so far it's been hit or miss.

ig1• 16 years ago

Most floppy disks only have a life span of 10 years, there are a number of computer games form the 90s for which we only have hacked/pirated versions of because no-one has a 100% working original anymore.

Hoff• 16 years ago

It's more than just footage, the hardware itself can be a problem.

In this same vein, here are some other old and NASA media- and hardware-related materials that may be of interest:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/22/nation/na-lunar22

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1066370...

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25183

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

mark_h• 16 years ago

I went to a lunch-time talk at WWDC'09 on this stuff (I forget the name of the guy presenting unfortunately, but I presume he was mentioned in those articles). Absolutely mind-blowing.

Two things I recall, apart from the stunning images: * This was all done in analogue of course; the camera of the lunar orbiter had a 24" aperture from memory, and essentially a mechanical film processing lab onboard (then stitched back on earth by manual layout and re-photographing). "They knew how to build stuff back then!"

* As you said, he was emphasising that while data formats are important, the hardware is even more crucial. For the tapes they were recovering, there were only 4 machines left in the world that could read them... and only one human who knew how they worked and could repair them! I went and started reading up on the long-now project after that.

* Bonus recollection: the reason the tapes hadn't degraded and lost their magnetic material, like many others their age, was because the binding agent used was... whale oil.

Actually, I've found the slides: http://www.slideshare.net/kcowing/presentation-by-dennis-win...

Thanks so much for the reminder.

InclinedPlane4• 16 years ago

It's sad, but an aspect of human nature. It's all too easy to avoid responsibility, push it off as someone else's problem, concentrate on more immediate problems, etc. Or to live in denial about the limited lifespan of magnetic tape, for example.

kasharoo• 16 years ago

Fake.

Australian footage of Neil Armstrong's moon walk

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