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Playing 1/2 inch NASA data reel through 1/4 inch audio reel to reel recorder

Chuck(G) said:
That middle track really makes me think that this tape was written by one of these:

NASA data recorder

If that's the case, the tape will have nothing but telemetry data; probably not in blocks and who knows what it was hooked to....
Click to expand...

I think GSE is "ground support equipment"

Is it a 1200' ft reel? The 9800 takes 8" reels.

Couple NASA-related things I ran across this morning

https://github.com/nasa/NASTRAN-93
are the NASTRAN FEA sources, uploaded in 2015


https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf
is the history of the search for the moon landing tapes
 
Nope, a 10.5" 2400' reel.

Here's another shot: here, full size

ihPptbk.jpg


Note that the parity track doesn't change at all. I don't see block gaps--I believe that this is an instrumentation tape along the lines of the Kennedy unit I posted.
 
We have come a long way! from playing a 1/2 inch tape on a 1/4 inch audio recorder to having recovered data from an IBM 7-track tape!

The tapes with their files can be found here:

https://archive.org/details/SpaceData

All thanks go to Chuck for reading the 7-track tapes for me. This would not have been possible without his help. More tape recovery may come from him later so stay tuned.
 
I have 28 NASA telemetry data tapes that I believe have Apollo 11 information on them. They were recovered from the basement of a deceased man in Pueblo West, CO. I am an auction house and liquidate estates. I am not able to donate or send them to someone as they are the property of the heirs but am trying to determine if they have any value to someone. They are 14" reels .5" wide and many are labeled with the tags including the astronauts name and other information that I am oblivious to the meaning of. Does anyone know if they have value and if they would be of use to someone?
 
maggios said:
I have 28 NASA telemetry data tapes that I believe have Apollo 11 information on them. They were recovered from the basement of a deceased man in Pueblo West, CO. I am an auction house and liquidate estates. I am not able to donate or send them to someone as they are the property of the heirs but am trying to determine if they have any value to someone. They are 14" reels .5" wide and many are labeled with the tags including the astronauts name and other information that I am oblivious to the meaning of. Does anyone know if they have value and if they would be of use to someone?
Click to expand...

Contact Richard Nafzger, he would have the most information on what may be on 1/2" telemetry tapes.
Before anyone starts, the 'missing' SSTV moon landing tapes are 1" wide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes
https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/tapes/Search_for_SSTV_Tapes.pdf
https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/tapes/main.html
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf
 
maggios said:
I have 28 NASA telemetry data tapes that I believe have Apollo 11 information on them. They were recovered from the basement of a deceased man in Pueblo West, CO. I am an auction house and liquidate estates. I am not able to donate or send them to someone as they are the property of the heirs but am trying to determine if they have any value to someone. They are 14" reels .5" wide and many are labeled with the tags including the astronauts name and other information that I am oblivious to the meaning of. Does anyone know if they have value and if they would be of use to someone?
Click to expand...

The historical data they may contain would certainly be of value to many enthusiast and people interested in the Apollo program. They could also be of use to the scientific community.

Could you send some photos of the tapes?
Or write down what is written on them, I may be able to tell whats on them then.
If these are actual telemetry tapes they would be historic and I will be trying to get contents recovered. Would be be possible for us to digitize them before they are being auctioned? What is on them could be priceless and it would be a shame if it got lost.

I would buy the tapes if need be.
 
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If it were telemetry data, it would be rather dull. With out the information as to what each signal was it would be just a bunch of signal levels that may change over time. Most such data it time multiplexed. It would be just monitor data. When I worked for Lockheed I used to plot such data for the engineers. Since I wasn't given the information as to what each plot was for, it was just wiggly lines of rolls of paper, when plotted.
Dwight
 
Well, 14" isn't the size of any 1/2" computer tape that I'm familiar with.

14" reels of 1" wide tape was used, however. See here for a description of those--and the NASA search for any remaining tapes.
 
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I don't count those as "computer tape", Al. I could see those for instrumentation or audio recording, but not as standard random-access computer tape.

14" reels are or were quite common in commercial audio recording.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I don't count those as "computer tape", Al.
Click to expand...

Fine. I don't consider 1/2" telemetry tape to be "computer tape"

The original, never-replied-probably-figures-they-wont-make-$$$-on-them stated:

"I have 28 NASA telemetry data tapes that I believe have Apollo 11 information on them. They are 14" reels .5" wide"
 
I can't recall the width of the tapes I used to set up when at Lockheed. It was a long time ago. I just recall making sure the multiplexer stayed in sync and that I calibrated the optical galvos correctly.
It was around 1967 someplace. The data was recorded as tones and I recall ( not real sure ) the frequency was the level. The tones were audio as I recall.
Dwight
 
Al Kossow said:
Fine. I don't consider 1/2" telemetry tape to be "computer tape"

The original, never-replied-probably-figures-they-wont-make-$$$-on-them stated:

"I have 28 NASA telemetry data tapes that I believe have Apollo 11 information on them. They are 14" reels .5" wide"
Click to expand...

Well, we'll probably never know then. There were thousands of the things.
 
A message has been send to a group of people who run and maintain the special Ampex telemetry/instrumentation tape recorders required to read such tapes, their collection still works and they have digitized tapes before. I read NASA still has old equipment like this in-situ in case tapes like this are found.

I have talked to someone, and he said given there are astronaut names on the tapes, they may contain biomedical telemetry from the astronaut's suit. Heartrate, temperature, suit supplies. The tape description does match Apollo telemetry tapes.

I would not mind to help them fund this endeavour.

I will keep you guys updated.
 
Thanks chuck for reading an other tape!

Hi T4600C,

I'm starting here with the tape QK7992H from NASA in the lot of 4. I suspect that it's the best as it's probably the original.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yLowcDp0QsJUDDuhqDdHB4GXz8VuoRos

At any rate, count this as a test only--there appears to be only one uncorrected parity error in block 130.

Note that any text in these is EBCDIC, not ASCII. The data structure appears to be fixed length records of 83 (total) bytes, each record starting off with its number in EBCDIC. Initial records are entirely in text; subsequent records are binary data.

For example, the first physical block (translated from EBCDIC to ASCII) is:

Code: 
20 20 20 20 |..Block 0:.. |
00000010 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | |
00000020 20 20 20 20 30 30 30 31 30 30 30 31 30 37 36 38 | 000100010768|
00000030 30 37 36 38 20 20 20 31 20 32 20 32 30 32 30 20 |0768 1 2 2020 |
00000040 31 35 33 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |1530 |
00000050 31 20 20 43 20 20 20 20 20 20 2a 20 20 20 20 20 |1 C * |
00000060 20 2a 20 20 20 20 20 20 2a 20 20 20 2a 20 20 20 | * * * |
00000070 2a 20 20 20 37 32 30 2a 20 20 20 20 20 20 2a 20 |* 720* * |
00000080 20 20 2a 20 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a 20 2a | * * * * * * *|
00000090 20 20 20 20 20 2a 20 20 32 20 20 43 4c 57 52 31 | * 2 CLWR1|
000000a0 35 33 30 20 20 20 56 45 53 54 41 2c 31 32 4d 49 |530 VESTA,12MI|
000000b0 4e 2c 53 4d 2e 41 50 2e 2c 4c 4f 2d 44 49 53 50 |N,SM.AP.,LO-DISP|
000000c0 20 20 5a 45 4c 4c 4e 45 52 2f 4d 41 59 20 32 31 | ZELLNER/MAY 21|
000000d0 2c 31 39 37 38 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |,1978 |
000000e0 33 20 20 43 43 41 4d 20 32 20 49 4d 41 47 45 20 |3 CCAM 2 IMAGE |
000000f0 31 35 33 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 50 52 4f 43 |1530 PROC|
00000100 20 56 45 52 53 4e 20 32 31 31 20 50 41 52 41 4d | VERSN 211 PARAM|
00000110 20 53 45 54 20 4e 4f 20 38 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | SET NO 8 |
00000120 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 34 20 20 43 20 20 20 20 | 4 C |
00000130 20 20 20 4e 4f 20 4c 41 4d 50 2d 45 58 50 20 54 | NO LAMP-EXP T|
00000140 49 4d 45 3d 37 31 39 20 53 45 43 53 20 20 20 20 |IME=719 SECS |
00000150 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | |
*
00000170 35 20 20 43 |5 C

More discovery--the University of Arizona tapes (3 of them) turn out to be 7 track, not 9, unlike the NASA-provided tape. I've got to see if I can discover what mainframe the UofA science department was using before I can make sense of them.

Would anyone here know the type of computer used at the state uni of Arizona in the mid to late 70's ?
 
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