Erased tapes of the Moon landing - Any News?

This is apparently the last thing reuters had to say about the erased Moon landing tapes.
www.reuters.com...

So, am I correct in assuming that there has been no news on this matter in almost 4 years now?

If true, this would mean that NASA erased the tapes of the only signature event that an average person automatically links with NASA.

This is like .... oh wait, I can't really find a fitting comparison to this. Because we are talking about the tapes of the first human landing on another celestial body.

Lets stick to the facts here. We know that NASA went to the moon and we know that the original landing tapes got erased. As I see it, we have three possibilities here.

1. At some unspecified point in history some person working for NASA made the following decision: "Let's erase the tapes of the original moon landing. We need them to film ... " WHAT EXACTLY? Are you insane? I refuse to believe that an idiot of such epic proportions would ever get a job at NASA. I bet that there are thousands of filmed hours in the NASA archives that nobody will ever feel the need to look at. But the first moon landing gets erased because they needed the tape? Really?

2. The tapes were erased so that nobody could see them. If we assume that the mood landing happened - which we pretty much have to, considering the evidence - we are led to conclude that the orginal tapes showed something we were not supposed to see.

3. The tapes were stolen / destroyed / erased by some hostile force. THAT would certainly justify a cover-up. And I suppose it sounds slightly better to say: "Oooops, we seem to have erased them." compared to: "We can't even protect our data from hostile attacks."

reply to post by Xenoglossy


4. Some intern got told to prepare all the tapes in a certain area for reuse so they did, i can remember cleaning mainframe mag tapes in the 1980's and its a soul destroying job if ever there is one....get tape from pile->put on machine and feed leader into 2nd reel...watch it go around for about 10 mins then rewind and repeat and after an hour or two you wouldn't care if it said "lunar landing - do not erase" in 2 inch high letters you'd probably not see it

Originally posted by Maxatoria
reply to post by Xenoglossy

 

4. Some intern got told to prepare all the tapes in a certain area for reuse so they did, i can remember cleaning mainframe mag tapes in the 1980's and its a soul destroying job if ever there is one....get tape from pile->put on machine and feed leader into 2nd reel...watch it go around for about 10 mins then rewind and repeat and after an hour or two you wouldn't care if it said "lunar landing - do not erase" in 2 inch high letters you'd probably not see it

Interns having access to the most important tapes in human history. Sure. That would be covered under my option 1, I believe.

Originally posted by Xenoglossy

Lets stick to the facts here. We know that NASA went to the moon and we know that the original landing tapes got erased. As I see it, we have three possibilities here.

Facts = good thing.

Fact is: We do not know that NASA went to the moon. I may be mistaken but we don't have second source proof from anyone. A satellite passing by, snapping pictures from massive distances, gives us zero detail that can be counted as proof IMHO.

Given the whole strange behavior of NASA and the official space program, I see a *lot* more than 3 possibilities here. This is but one possibility:

reply to post by Xenoglossy


I would like to know which conspiracy you are hinting at.

1 The U.S landed on the Moon ( in which case you shoot down 1 conspiracy #3 )

2 The U.S landed on the Moon and surppressed evidence of aliens. ( which again shoots down #3 )

3 The U.S never landed on the Moon. ( then you destroy the 2 above conspiracies)

4 The U.S is hiding evidence of alien bases on the moon ( this theory fails to include all other countries that have photographed the surface of the moon, and astronomers both professional and amature who are able to see the surface of the moon)

Pick one it's all a conspiracy I tell you.

Originally posted by EricR

Facts = good thing.

Fact is: We do not know that NASA went to the moon. I may be mistaken but we don't have second source proof from anyone.

Even if we had proof from a second source you could always say that the second source is bought by / working with NASA.

read this:
warp.povusers.org...

If there was even a shred of evidence that the USA didn't land on the moon, don't you think the Russians would have ... I don't know ... exploited this? Especially at this time and during the space race.

Or do you propose that the Russians were on the inside of this conspiracy? If they were: why fake it at all? I thought the main reason was to best the Russians?

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty
reply to post by Xenoglossy

 

I would like to know which conspiracy you are hinting at.

You seem to have recognized that I'm not hinting at a specific theory. Good job so far.

Now try to explain how NASA (the institution which is almost synonymous with "intelligent, highly educated people") manages to erase not some random tapes, but what are arguably THE TAPES not only of NASA's history but the history of mankind?

You are free to go from there, regarding your own take on what happened.

reply to post by Xenoglossy

To preserve them, the data on the tapes was 50 years old. Had probably already degraded, there were copies that have been made to keep the record clear.

The most commonly quoted figure for the archival life of magnetic tape is 30 years. Even in an era of heightened concern about compliance and records retention, that is long enough to make storage administrators comfortable -- perhaps a little too comfortable.
Data life on magnetic tapes is not a "write-it-and-forget-it" proposition. While it is true that tapes can have a storage life measured in decades, the 30-year figure assumes storage under ideal conditions. For example, the Quantum DLT 8000 data sheet specifies the 30-year lifespan at 20-degrees centigrade and 40% non-condensing humidity. Other manufacturers specify similar conditions. The important thing is that these ranges of temperature and humidity are generally fairly narrow, and the more the storage conditions depart from those ideals, the shorter the life of the tape. Considering the penalties enterprises face if they fail to meet compliance regulations, losing data because of tape degradation is not a good idea

[url.abovetopsecret.com]AboveTopSecret[/url]

I could just see a conspiracy coming in 10 years.

"The data on NASA's tape doesn't match the data we are seeing." ( Play x-files intro)

NASA was just trying to head off the next whack job.

Originally posted by EricR
A satellite passing by, snapping pictures from massive distances, gives us zero detail that can be counted as proof IMHO.

You call this zero detail?
www.nasa.gov...

That's Apollo 15 site at resolution of 40cm/pixel.

Here's one of Apollo 17 at the whooping 25cm/pixel:
wms.lroc.asu.edu...

Lots more here: www.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty
reply to post by Xenoglossy

 

To preserve them, the data on the tapes was 50 years old. Had probably already degraded, ...

Perfectly good reasons ... to make copies.
Not a single reason to erase the originals.

Those are not your VHS tapes of the X-Files that you can throw away or erase once you bought the DVD-Box. Those are historic documents.

I might be wrong but there should even be a law regarding the indefinite storage of such documents. Anybody?

Also: would your position be the same if somebody destroyed the original Declaration of Independence? "Hey guys, don't worry, we made copies. Who needs the original? It started to fade away. Fresh HD copies are much better, right, right?"

reply to post by Xenoglossy

Those are not your VHS tapes of the X-Files that you can through away or erase once you bought the DVD-Box. Those are historic documents.

I can agree with that VHS is 20 years more advanced.

You must have skipped or ignore the bottom of my 1st reply.

Also: would your position be the same if somebody destroyed the original Declaration of Independence? "Hey guys, don't worry, we made copies. Who needs the original? It started to fade away. Fresh HD copies are much better, right, right?"

Yep the data would still be on the declaration so no need to destroy it. It wouldn't be a jumbled mess of signals.

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty

You must have skipped or ignore the bottom of my 1st reply.

You don't seem to get it. Even if the tapes degraded so far that there was virtually NOTHING to see anymore (which I doubt, but let's assume it for the sake of the argument) - still they should have kept the historic objects / evidence.

I vote for "something on the tapes NASA doesn't want people to see"..

Just like they stopped all live space footage of the shuttle missions after all those UFO's showed up on STS-80.

This clearly shows NASA cannot be trusted and they have things to hide.

in short, i don't buy it (the tapes being erased). not a chance. whatever the actual fate of the footage, i suspect it's apparent demise was no accident.

Originally posted by RoScoLaz
in short, i don't buy it (the tapes being erased). not a chance. whatever the actual fate of the footage, i suspect it's apparent demise was no accident.

Exactly.

NASA employees often talk about how they saw the moon landing on TV as a child and how it inspired them to go into this field later in life.

So, am I to believe that one of those guys, who basically dedicated his life to NASA, somehow managed to erase the very reason he joined the organisation? Yeah, that's likely.

Originally posted by Xenoglossy

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty

You must have skipped or ignore the bottom of my 1st reply.

You don't seem to get it. Even if the tapes degraded so far that there was virtually NOTHING to see anymore (which I doubt, but let's assume it for the sake of the argument) - still they should have kept the historic objects / evidence.

I could just see a conspiracy coming in 10 years.

"The data on NASA's tape doesn't match the data we are seeing." ( Play x-files intro)

NASA was just trying to head off the next whack job
[/quote]

No it is my opinion that they did it because the data had degraded. The data didn't match the true events of what happen. The end result they were trying to avoid is above in my quoted post. I see they didn't succeed.

Why keep a inaccurate picture of events? No your OP is another thinly veiled attempt at a conspiracy about the moon. You only use the significance of their historic value, to bolster your conspiracy.

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty
No it is my opinion that they did it because the data had degraded. The data didn't match the true events of what happen. The end result they were trying to avoid is above in my quoted post. I see they didn't succeed.

Why keep a inaccurate picture of events?

How is a damaged file inaccurate? Especially if you have good viewable copies. If anything, a damaged original that is kept, shows that you are aware of your responsibility towards the future generations. There are enough artifacts that are forever lost because people like you thought: "Whatever. We just made a copy." And 20 years later somebody says: "Well that's just a copy, not worth keeping this around." Not saying that this will happen in this case, but I hope you get the analogy.

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty
No your OP is another thinly veiled attempt at a conspiracy about the moon. You only use the significance of their historic value, to bolster your conspiracy.

I don't know whether my posts are "thinly veiled attempts at a conspiracy about the moon". But I know that your utter disregard towards history and the importance of original data / objects / artifacts is quite obvious.

Actually I don't even think that you really believe what you are saying (that the NASA was somehow justified in erasing the tapes). I think that you just saw "moon conspiracy" and entered defense-mode.

reply to post by Xenoglossy

How is a damaged file inaccurate?

Seriously!!!!!

Originally posted by EricR

Originally posted by Xenoglossy

This is but one possibility:

edit on 7-4-2013 by EricR because: (no reason given)

Your joking right? That is a video made for a commercial, it was made in the past few years in the 2000's. How can you not know that? How is it possible that this video is being passed on over and over on ATS, when it is clearly a joke, a comic spoof, I saw it on TV as a commercial myself a few years ago. Can't remember what the commercial was promoting, but it was on TV as a commercial and despite that it was clearly made in modern times and is clearly a joke.

The funny thing is that the page you linked to is not "sensational" or makes this a big issue in the slightest.

I am assuming the fact that 40 year old magnetic tapes (where there isn't equipment anymore to READ them!) was erased only becomes "news worthy" for conspiracy theorists - as the article also nicely points out.

I also, vaguely, remember the story of a whole bunch of tapes being discovered somewhere in an old, abandened McDonalds...the interesting thing about it that this JUNK is so old they first had to re-built one of the old computers to even be able to read them. This should give you an idea about the "importance" of those tapes....because it's really minor aside from the "historical" value.