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The Hackers Who Recovered NASA's Lost Lunar Photos
An anonymous reader sends this story from Wired:
"The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project has since 2007 brought some 2,000 pictures back from 1,500 analog data tapes. They contain the first high-resolution photographs ever taken from behind the lunar horizon, including the first photo of an earthrise. Thanks to the technical savvy and DIY engineering of the team at LOIRP, it's being seen at a higher resolution than was ever previously possible. ... The photos were stored with remarkably high fidelity on the tapes, but at the time had to be copied from projection screens onto paper, sometimes at sizes so large that warehouses and even old churches were rented out to hang them up. The results were pretty grainy, but clear enough to identify landing sites and potential hazards. After the low-fi printing, the tapes were shoved into boxes and forgotten. ... The drives had to be rebuilt and in some cases completely re-engineered using instruction manuals or the advice of people who used to service them. The data they recovered then had to be demodulated and digitized, which added more layers of technical difficulties."
After reading the headline I thought that the lost Lunar landing footage was recovered, but it is sadly not the case.
The actual story is still pretty cool, however.
Given the negative connotations of the word "hackers" - how about "dedicated engineers" instead?
I prefer restoring the original meaning of the "hacker" badge to its original lofty meaning as "one who hacks and hacks and hacks in the manner of a dedicated engineer until it rocks." ... and this clearly rocks.
The negative connotation to the word was given by the media. The people that know what they are talking about don't see it as negative.
Check your dictionary. Lots of things have two or more meanings.
Among readers here, the preferred IT meaning is roughly "an expert who uses his knowledge to do things requiring extraordinary skills." It's not "the kid who tricked you into giving him your Facebook password."
I'm curious, are you just a confused child, or a troll?
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
"Hacker" can't have two meanings
Which of course is why "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is not a valid sentence. Or, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, "English motherfucker! Do you speak it?"
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
I've never heard Samuel L. Jackson say that, although I have heard him say, "English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?"
why not ask how we can set up a stock trading floor on the moon? you know, for the PROFIT!
Well supposedly they are the most important part of our economy, and so if we want to start an economy up there then we really should start with the basics right?
I suggest we send all the bankers and major stock brokers/exchanges up there first. Maybe we could even send them all the politicians, judges and lawyers thery need. Once they establish an economy we can send them less important things, like food, shelter, healthcare, breathable air, etc. ):D
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
...of what's to come.
This data's barely 50 years old, of extremely high value (thus worth the extraordinary effort), and relatively low Size.
We're talking about a couple of thousand high-resolution pictures, so what, each is perhaps what, 10 megabytes (they're all b&w)? So total of 20 gigs of images?
I know people that take more picture data than that in a single 1st birthday party.
And in 50 years, will it be gone?
-Styopa
Sometimes the comma gets lost in an accent.
These images contain irreproducible (and thus priceless) data. They show the moon as it appeared in 1966, which allows comparisons to be made to the same lunar areas today. Although the surface of the moon changes very very slowly, it does change. And these pictures may allow us to measure that change. Furthermore, as the article points out, some of the pictures also show the earth as of 1966, allowing comparisons to be made with the earth of today (i.e. the extent of Arctic ice).