Comments on: NASA Update: We’ve Been Had! NASA’s “Lost” Footage Was ERASED!!!

By: The0ne

The0ne — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:48:14 +0000

Hard for me to believe when it comes to NASA, but it could happen. I mean they did choose the crappy company I use to work for to provide them with defective actuators :/

Here’s what I’m thinking about this whole thing…

“And this is the best that you c – that the-the government, the *U.S. government* can come up with? I mean, you-you’re NASA for cryin’ out loud, you put a man on the moon, you’re geniuses! You-you’re the guys that think this shit up! I’m sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You’re telling me you don’t have a backup plan, that these eight boy scouts right here, that is the world’s hope, that’s what you’re telling me?”

Personally, I think NASA is lying through their teeth. You don’t need a historian to tell you you should keep any data. Most people in science will want to keep data. Data is all that matters >.> It’s not rocket science decision. If you’re out of tapes, BUY MORE.

By: deowll

deowll — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:48:33 +0000

#9 I know this was before your time but that is exactly what you could do with VHS and such.

“Of course I believe we went to the moon……. several times, but there is something extremely fishy about this story.”

What’s hard to believe about somebody in the records department doing something very stupid with something very valuable. It happens all the time.

If you still find it hard to credit I have one question for you. Have you ever erased a file that you absolutely didn’t mean to erase or do you know somebody who has?

I know people who made the trip of a life time and then erased their only copy of their video by mistake. Leo LaPort and his trip to Egypt for one.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:55:13 +0000

So why didn’t they copy the data tapes to a more modern digital medium before erasing them? Or maybe they did, to be revealed later.

By: MoreGruelPlease

MoreGruelPlease — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:48:01 +0000

The tapes weren’t labeled or marked? When they put the tapes in to reuse them they had *no way* of knowing they were about to erase the lunar landing? At NASA?

So, I’m to believe we have a bunch of rocket scientists who can’t organize a tape collection. Sorry. I’m totally down with government incompetence, but this is too much of a leap even for me.

By: amodedoma

amodedoma — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:22:20 +0000

In the navy I had to maintain a large library (thousands) of data tapes of the type in question and believe me, back then the older something got the more probable it’s loss. Computer time was too important for something so trivial as library maintnance. So every thing was done with logs, stickers, and cards by hand. Add to that the constant technological advancement in computers since then. It’s not so surprising really.

By: Olo Baggins of Bywater

Olo Baggins of Bywater — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:14:30 +0000

NASA was a huge, relatively young agency that hired boatloads of new employees every month. And at the end, they all just took off. Lots of stuff left with them, lots was left abandoned, much got swallowed up into the contractor’s main business. Some day it will start showing up on Antiques Roadshow.

My favorite headline from the day:
http://tinyurl.com/l56cq3

By: Animby

Animby — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:41:35 +0000

# 18 Jim said, “…some incompetent git didn’t write down which tapes had the tracks. Then some incompetent idiots decided to reuse the tapes…”

Hmmmm. Damned Aussies!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:20:34 +0000

You folks talking about film — you are aware we’re talking about huge, magnetic TAPES, not spools of 70 MM film, right?

They recorded the signal for the video cameras in one or more of the tracks of the tape and then some incompetent git didn’t write down which tapes had the tracks.

Then some incompetent idiots decided to reuse the tapes without actually checking to see what was ON them.

Par for the course with Nasa.

By: IUT

IUT — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:24:07 +0000

Oh please, it’s so obvious someone has those tapes in their vault and we won’t find out who or where for decades to come.

By: Cap'nKangaroo

Cap'nKangaroo — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:41:28 +0000

The Vikings were the first to discover America but they couldn’t prove it because they copied over their charts and notes.

By: LDA

LDA — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:05:39 +0000

#11 TooManyPuppies

Yes, erased / reusable.

By: Glenn E.

Glenn E. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:53:37 +0000

I think it’s just evidence that NASA didn’t give a rat’s ass about the moon landing being “preserved for history”. When the Apollo missions were over, it was a done deal for NASA. They were more interested in the Voyager probes, Space Station, and Shuttles program. Not about looking back at what was done. Leave that up to Hollywood film magic. So they reused the tapes, to save money buying a dozen or so new ones. I know, it seems stupid today, with recording media being so plentiful and cheap. But back then, reels of data tape were probably like bars of gold (or silver anyway). And got reused all the time. Just as we reuse the disks in Tivos. Not preserving much of anything they record, even if we could. Maybe someday there will be PVRs with removable media. And people then will scoff at all the moments we recorded over, back in the bad old days.

But still, you’d think that NASA could have taken the time to transfer to film, these taped images. They’ve only become desperate about finding and providing them now. Because they want to promote a return to the moon. It’s all about the PR, people. They’ve got no real good reason for returning. Just the hype of adventure, jobs (damn few), the vague promise of discovery (that it’s not made of cheese? Or what?). The ISS apparently hasn’t paid off as much as they’d like. So it’s on to the moon, now. The next lead balloon project. Then I guarantee they’d be getting serious about Mars, after that. Whatever keeps the tax dollars flowing.

By: Somebody_Else

Somebody_Else — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:41:13 +0000

What’s so “tinfoil hat” about government incompetence? Some government worker taped over the good recording.

Shit happens.

By: Carcarius

Carcarius — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:40:45 +0000

The reflection in Armstrong’s visor was that of a guy saying “Say cheese!!!”

By: TooManyPuppies

TooManyPuppies — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:17:00 +0000

@LDA

So, after using that they can then take the film and stick it back into the camera and use it again, right? After all it’s been erased and ready for reuse. Like erasing pencil from paper or data from a hard drive. If not, that would be destroyed, not erased.