9 ms·

The Hackers Who Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos

121 points by waterlesscloud 13y ago

xemoka 13y ago
Wired seems to often not include links directly to whom they're writing about. Check out the LOIRP at http://www.moonviews.com/ http://www.moonviews.com/ and find some of the original images they've recovered... along with lots of other great information.
- rkuykendall-com 13y ago
  Traditionally-print publications have a huge problem with linking to whatever they are talking about. I've seen articles about a video which don't link to the video the article is about.
  - subdane 13y ago
    New York Times is getting better about this, I've been surprised to regularly see links to Youtube videos in their articles!
  - dublinben 13y ago
    It's even worse when a publication has hyperlinks in seemingly-relevant places, but they're just a link to that keyword on their own site.
  - chris_va 13y ago
    Interestingly, this is often because writers are not allowed to add links. Links are the domain of the editors, which is a separate union. Blogs get around this by not being published "articles", so the author can add their own linking. This is one reason why "blogs" are called out so explicitly on news websites.
ColinDabritz 13y ago
This is amazing work, beautiful pictures. See also, their ISEE-3 Reboot project: http://www.rockethub.com/42228 http://www.rockethub.com/42228
- sp332 13y ago
  Submitted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7636013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7636013
roywiggins 13y ago
Honestly I'd love to know what tech they used to print the images out back in 1967.
- neckro23 13y ago
  Here you go: http://www.moonviews.com/2012/06/printing-the-moon.html http://www.moonviews.com/2012/06/printing-the-moon.html
watson 13y ago
This have been an ongoing project for many years and a lot of really nice articles have come out over the years. I remember once seeing a lot of nice photographs from the old McDonalds restaurant that showed some nice details about their setup. The guys even have their own Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Pr...
_random_ 13y ago
When you spend that much money on a scientific project (Lunar program) you should get as much PR as possible.
sp332 13y ago
So, how do I get a wall-sized print of these?
conectorx 13y ago
They never went to the moon.... Here comes the downvotes in... 3... 2... 1...
NAFV_P 13y ago
> Between 1966 and ’67, five Lunar Orbiters snapped pictures onto 70mm film from about 30 miles above the moon. The satellites were sent mainly to scout potential landing sites for manned moon missions. Each satellite would point its dual lens Kodak camera at a target, snap a picture, then develop the photograph. High- and low-resolution photos were then scanned into strips called framelets using something akin to an old fax machine reader. Before they were doing this, spy satellites would hurl the data back to Earth in a capsule, then use a plane to try and pick it out of mid-air. You had to wear gloves when pulling it into the plane's cargo hold, the capsule would have been searingly hot. One time the recovery crew saw a Soviet submarine in the waves beneath them, from then on they stuck to radio transmissions only. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)
picea 13y ago
I found the 2009 Computerworld article worth reading too. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134771/The_lost_NASA_tapes_Restoring_lunar_images_after_40_years_in_the_vault http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134771/The_lost_NASA...
ballard 13y ago
BusinessWeek (2013) also has a video interview at McMoon: http://businessweek.com/videos/2013-08-15/abandoned-mcdonalds-holds-glimpse-of-life-on-moon http://businessweek.com/videos/2013-08-15/abandoned-mcdonald... Also yelp reviews of the former McD's (map position is wrong) http://yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-mountain-view-4 http://yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-mountain-view-4 Correct map locating McMoon (green arrow): http://goo.gl/maps/LhQGw http://goo.gl/maps/LhQGw

121 points by waterlesscloud 13y ago

Wired seems to often not include links directly to whom they're writing about. Check out the LOIRP at http://www.moonviews.com/ http://www.moonviews.com/ and find some of the original images they've recovered... along with lots of other great information.

rkuykendall-com 13y ago
Traditionally-print publications have a huge problem with linking to whatever they are talking about. I've seen articles about a video which don't link to the video the article is about.
- subdane 13y ago
  New York Times is getting better about this, I've been surprised to regularly see links to Youtube videos in their articles!
- dublinben 13y ago
  It's even worse when a publication has hyperlinks in seemingly-relevant places, but they're just a link to that keyword on their own site.
- chris_va 13y ago
  Interestingly, this is often because writers are not allowed to add links. Links are the domain of the editors, which is a separate union. Blogs get around this by not being published "articles", so the author can add their own linking. This is one reason why "blogs" are called out so explicitly on news websites.

ColinDabritz 13y ago

This is amazing work, beautiful pictures. See also, their ISEE-3 Reboot project: http://www.rockethub.com/42228 http://www.rockethub.com/42228

sp332 13y ago
Submitted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7636013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7636013

roywiggins 13y ago

Honestly I'd love to know what tech they used to print the images out back in 1967.

neckro23 13y ago
Here you go: http://www.moonviews.com/2012/06/printing-the-moon.html http://www.moonviews.com/2012/06/printing-the-moon.html

watson 13y ago

This have been an ongoing project for many years and a lot of really nice articles have come out over the years. I remember once seeing a lot of nice photographs from the old McDonalds restaurant that showed some nice details about their setup. The guys even have their own Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Pr...

_random_ 13y ago

When you spend that much money on a scientific project (Lunar program) you should get as much PR as possible.

sp332 13y ago

So, how do I get a wall-sized print of these?

conectorx 13y ago

They never went to the moon.... Here comes the downvotes in... 3... 2... 1...

NAFV_P 13y ago

> Between 1966 and ’67, five Lunar Orbiters snapped pictures onto 70mm film from about 30 miles above the moon. The satellites were sent mainly to scout potential landing sites for manned moon missions. Each satellite would point its dual lens Kodak camera at a target, snap a picture, then develop the photograph. High- and low-resolution photos were then scanned into strips called framelets using something akin to an old fax machine reader. Before they were doing this, spy satellites would hurl the data back to Earth in a capsule, then use a plane to try and pick it out of mid-air. You had to wear gloves when pulling it into the plane's cargo hold, the capsule would have been searingly hot. One time the recovery crew saw a Soviet submarine in the waves beneath them, from then on they stuck to radio transmissions only. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)

picea 13y ago

I found the 2009 Computerworld article worth reading too. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134771/The_lost_NASA_tapes_Restoring_lunar_images_after_40_years_in_the_vault http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134771/The_lost_NASA...

ballard 13y ago

BusinessWeek (2013) also has a video interview at McMoon: http://businessweek.com/videos/2013-08-15/abandoned-mcdonalds-holds-glimpse-of-life-on-moon http://businessweek.com/videos/2013-08-15/abandoned-mcdonald... Also yelp reviews of the former McD's (map position is wrong) http://yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-mountain-view-4 http://yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-mountain-view-4 Correct map locating McMoon (green arrow): http://goo.gl/maps/LhQGw http://goo.gl/maps/LhQGw