Restored photos focus on moon’s south pole

Lunar Orbiter imagery reveals prime target for NASA’s latest lunar probes

By Robert Goodier
updated 33 minutes ago

Newly restored photographs of the moon's dark south pole, taken by lunar orbiters in 1967, were released this week in anticipation of NASA's planned Thursday launch of two new probes that will investigate the region in search of underground ice.

Through the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, or LOIRP, experts have scanned and digitally refurbished nearly 1,800 photographs of the moon that satellites snapped in 1966 and 1967. This week, the project released new versions of images showing permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole, a prime target for NASA's latest lunar scouts.

Dennis Wingo, who directs the project, was 6 years old when the first images were televised. "Even as a small child I was very much a follower of the space program," he told Space.com.

The orbiters took photographs and developed the film onboard before scanning them and relaying them to stations around the world. NASA scientists used the images to plan the Apollo moon landings. They were recorded on 2-inch analog tape and stored for posterity. Now, more than 40 years later, Wingo is using the only remaining tape players capable of extracting those images for digitization. He publishes the restorations on the Web site Moonviews.com.

A precursor of the project to restore the tapes began in the 1980s. That attempt stalled when funds dried up. Twenty years later, Wingo noticed a blog post that mentioned the tapes. Nancy Evans, co-founder of the NASA Planetary Data System, had the tape players stored in a barn and was looking for someone to finish the process she had started.

"We're converting them to digital, then processing them on the computer to show them in their original glory," Wingo said. NASA could later compare the 40-year-old images with those the new probes will gather, he added.

This week's release of images comes as NASA prepares for the Thursday launch of a new mission to investigate whether there is water ice on the moon's south pole.

more at:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Ahh...this is part of that project to restore the data tapes with the Apollo images that are in that McDonalds that Zorgon was talking about several months ago.

They found the "player" in a chicken coop. Supposedly the last one in the world. They restored it and, finally, it seems we might be getting some releases from them.

however, their focusing on the polar regions hints that private funding is driving initial results. The curious and interested will have to wait at the back of the line.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


At least now the images won't be lost

I guess the back of the line is better than no line at all.

reply to post by Pauligirl


All of the images are already available. Scans of the original photographs can be obtained from several different online sources. The USGS has the highest quality scans though their project is not yet complete.

The project which is the subject of the article is taking the analog videotapes which were transmitted from the Lunar Orbiters and doing a direct conversion to a digital form. The quality seems to be somewhat better than the high quality scans but not spectacularly so. The limitations and flaws of the original photographs taken by the spacecraft are still there.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Pauligirl

 

All of the images are already available. Scans of the original photographs can be obtained from several different online sources. The USGS has the highest quality scans though their project is not yet complete.

The project which is the subject of the article is taking the analog videotapes which were transmitted from the Lunar Orbiters and doing a direct conversion to a digital form. The quality seems to be somewhat better than the high quality scans but not spectacularly so. The limitations and flaws of the original photographs taken by the spacecraft are still there.

Thanks for the information. I was going by this:

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I rise to commend the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project and all those who have contributed their time and effort to ensure that historic images and vital data from the Lunar Orbiter missions of the 1960s are not lost to future generations.

www.moonviews.com...

Made it sound like they would be lost forever.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Pauligirl

 

All of the images are already available. Scans of the original photographs can be obtained from several different online sources. The USGS has the highest quality scans though their project is not yet complete.

The project which is the subject of the article is taking the analog videotapes which were transmitted from the Lunar Orbiters and doing a direct conversion to a digital form. The quality seems to be somewhat better than the high quality scans but not spectacularly so. The limitations and flaws of the original photographs taken by the spacecraft are still there.

Even more, the theory goes that the photo's on those tapes are untouched. It is from the pre-Isis days, before Clementine. This is why i am so disappointed to see evidence that there might be a third party funding this now, as it just allows another chance to possibly obfuscate by destroying the chain of evidence.

[edit on 18-6-2009 by bigfatfurrytexan]