O ratowaniu danych zapisanych na przestarzałych nośnikach.The Heroes Behind the HeroesApril 19, 2019
(...) John Hansen: But we couldn't go to 9/11, let's say, New York City. You couldn't go to, like, you know, Hurricane Katrina events and things like this because many of the audio that we could get access to could potentially not be released. In addition to that, none of them were synchronized, so it's very hard to understand who was doing what and at what time if you don't have a common time frame. And so those challenges actually NASA solved for us because when we went back, we started doing some homework in looking at Apollo. And we saw, well, lo and behold, NASA recorded all this with timecode. That was the big plus.
Host: How did you become aware that that had even happened? If you had gone to the National Science Foundation and were looking for help but didn't know where there was, you know, what turns out to be a recording of many people talking all over each other all at the same time, how did you know that that was even there?
John Hansen: We knew that NASA recorded the audio. A lot of the Air to Ground, called Capcom, that's been released. And so at least that communication we knew was there. However, most of the audio that involved Mission Control, a lot of the back room discussions, support staff that were providing support to Mission Control, most of that audio had never really been released. And we thought, well, this actually would be an interesting space to look at. You know, the average, you know, K-12 type student pretty much knows hopefully most of the astronauts, at least the 12 Moon walkers. But most do not know who was working behind the scenes. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/heroes-behind-the-heroesThe Heroes Behind the Heroes: Part 2April 26, 2019
(...) Pat Ryan: Let me stop you for a second. The tapes that we're talking about, physical audio tapes that were recorded in 1969, in the case of Apollo 11. And 30 tracks, there are 30 different sources being recorded at the same time? Actually recorded at the same time? So they're already synced up in time because they were recorded that way?
John Hansen: Exactly. That is correct. And so—
Pat Ryan: What were the 30 sources? Did you know? Were they always the same?
John Hansen: No. Interestingly enough, NASA, when they recorded this, they had two historical recorders called HR1, HR2. Historical recorder one, historical recorder two. For each of these two recorders there's an upper and a lower recorder or a tape system; right? And the reason for that is, you know, if you're kind of recording on one historical recorder, you can't tell everyone, hey, stop. We got to switch the tapes right now. So they have two tapes. And so they'll record on the lower system. And then, when the tape's starting to run out, they'll start running tape on the other. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/the-heroes-behind-the-heroes-part-2The Heroes Behind the Heroes: Part 3May 3, 2019
(...) Host: If you're there majoring in biomedical engineering, how did you get involved with John Hansen and his work?
Tuan Nguyen: Okay, so I was doing my senior project at the time. And Dr. Hansen was pretty much my project mentor. He managed about eight groups, senior project at the time. So, I mean, I didn't really get to hear about all this project that he's been proposing until my last day at the expo. That my last, second semester. So, I mean, you know, he had eight teams. So I was kind of shocked and surprised that he looked at me. You know, he was telling, oh, yeah we have this thing going on with NASA. And, you know, it's Apollo 11 project and stuff like that. He looked at me, Tuan, would you want it be a part of it? You know, I was surprised. Like I don't even know, I mean, you know, you have eight teams. I mean, that's a lot of, you know, students under him. But I guess he saw something in me that I really didn't see in me so.
Host: Explain to me what the project was. How did he present it to you? What was he trying to do?
Tuan Nguyen: So he, I mean, he say something about historical events, that we're trying to preserve these Apollo 11 tapes. Because, I mean, it's been locked up in a vault for about, over 40-some years. So he afraid that the tape's going to get decay. And, you know, forever be gone with the historic event, you know, the first man on the moon. So, I mean, what he's trying to do. So I'm like the last guy that he really recruited to be sent down to NASA and kind of get, you know, get all these tapes done for him. And for NASA. I mean, you know, it's really for the public interest. It wouldn't be for engineers or researchers, yeah. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/the-heroes-behind-the-heroes-part-3The Heroes Behind the Heroes: Part 4May 10, 2019
(...) The University of Texas of Dallas Professor, who is the universities distinguished Chair in Telecommunications Engineering and the founder and Director of the Center for Robust Speech Systems, he had a plan, he and his team of students were going to salvage the audio recorded in NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston during the first a Apollo moon landing and do a comprehensive study of the language used by a large group of people while they were collaborating to solve a problem. The researchers were going to advance speech and language technology by developing the mechanical systems that could better understand the jumble of human speech, as compared to a single voice. Their plan did not include solving a major engineering problem to get the only available piece of hardware that could possibly play the audio off of analog tapes, get that equipment into operating condition so that they can digitize these sounds of history. Completely off plan, they designed and fabricated brand new hardware components. And then they oversaw the playback of more than sixty audio tapes running some, fourteen hours each, just to get the raw material with which to do the science they came here to do in the first place. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/the-heroes-behind-the-heroes-part-4/NASA, University of Texas at Dallas Reveal Apollo 11 Behind-the-Scenes AudioJuly 24, 2018
(...) While the 19,000 hours of tape data from Apollo 11 are a significant accomplishment that will provide greatly improved access to that mission, they represent only 25 percent of the audio record for all of Project Apollo. The rest -- which still remain to be digitized and transcribed -- cover the early Apollo test flights in orbit around the Earth, the two test missions that sent Apollo 8 around the Moon in December 1968, put Apollo 10 in orbit around the Moon in May of 1969, the five later Apollo missions that landed on the Moon, and the “successful failure” that saw Apollo 13 crippled by an oxygen tank explosion and required Mission Control to use all of the innovation it could muster to bring the crew of three home safely to Earth. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-university-of-texas-at-dallas-reveal-apollo-11-behind-the-scenes-audioNot-Unsolved Mysteries: The “Lost” Apollo 11 TapesJuly 8, 2019
Video: July 16, 2009 press conference on the search for and restoration of the Apollo 11 video.With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing approaching, reports have resurfaced that NASA lost some precious video footage of that first moonwalk.
Before diving into the details of two distinct events that seem to have become conflated, it’s worth emphasizing three key points:
- NASA searched for but could not locate some of the original Apollo 11 data tapes – “original” in the sense that they directly recorded data transmitted from the Moon. An intensive search of archives and records concluded that the most likely scenario was that the program managers determined there was no longer a need to keep the tapes — since all the video and data were recorded elsewhere — and they were erased and reused.
- The data on those tapes, including video data, were relayed to the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Johnson Space Center), during the mission. The video was recorded there and in other locations; there is no missing video footage from the Apollo 11 moonwalk.
- The search discovered high-quality broadcast versions of the footage. NASA worked with Lowry Digital, a premier film restoration company, to process the video using techniques unavailable in 1969. The restored video was released in HD as part of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.
Further explanation means diving into the details of how Apollo sent data back to Earth and how NASA collected it. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/not-unsolved-mysteries-the-lost-apollo-11-tapes