Pioneer 11 computer tapes & image data processing

Our modified HP magtape drive /w custom firmware & 7/9 track combo head. (w/ Apollo 16 tape used by Launch Control.)

 

Hello forum members,

 

Pretty much in the last two years I have taken up a new 'hobby', which consists of acquiring space flight audio,

video and data tapes and digitizing them.

 

 

With the help of others around the world I've digitized audio, video and data ranging from Apollo,

Skylab missions to the Pioneer 10/11 and original satellite telemetry tapes from the 50's and 60's.

 

This reply will focus on the Pioneer tapes. First, a heads up:

 

 

Last year I bought 4 Pioneer computer tapes from Ebay. These tapes were at one point used at the state uni of Arizona.

 

Because of the writing on the tapes, and the origin, I suspected these tapes may contain imagery data from the Pioneer probes.

As the label mentions "Pioneer 11 EDR UA/IPP data" and the state uni of Arizona worked on the Pioneer imagery devices.

 

Some photos of the tapes below:

 

 

 

 

I have send these tapes to Chuck, who owns a data recovery company in America.

Chuck has experience with NASA tapes and has highly specializes equipment to be able to digitize all sorts of formats and data densities.

He saves the data from the tapes in the SIMH format, which is kind of like the ISO format, as it does not only contain the binary data but also tape markers,

and separates the data frames into blocks as it would be on a real tape. because of this, you have a 100% copy of the data and tape formatting.

 

 

So far, two tapes (QK7992H and Pione-4138N), has been digitized.

One other is troublesome to read, and one appears to be wiped.

Chuck is currently occupied with more important matters but will give the tapes an other pass when he has the time.

 

 

Tape QK7992H

This tape contains 6 MB of data, and 12 files.

 

Each file contains EBCDIC metadata.

 

We have confirmed 6 of the 12 files are image files, and have processed them to how we think it works. 3 are B/W images and 3 are colour.

 

See the following 3 B/W images:

 

https://i.imgur.com/PD4xkL7.gif

 

And a colour image:

 

https://i.imgur.com/JytCKmg.png

 

 

This archive file contains the data we have processed of QK7992H so far:

 

We don't know what to do with the remaining 6 files, they have metadata like the image files.

 

 

Tape Pione-4138N

We are not sure what to do with this tape. The labels claim it contains EDR UA/IPP data.

 

So this tape might have raw imagery data from the Pioneer IPP (Imaging PhotoPolarimeter).

 

Tape 7937

This tape is proving troublesome to read, lots of parity errors.

The EBCDIC metadata at the beginning of the tape is similar to QK7992H, so likely it also contains image files.

 

 

In order to further process the data, we are looking for the following document that will hopefully tell us how to work the data:

 

PN F/G OFFLINE DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM DESCRIPTION" "NASA/ARC PC-262

 

 

Master archive:

Documentation, photos, raw data and processed data can be found on the link above.

 

 

If you want to help, or have a go at the files, do not be afraid to ask and submit any thoughts.

 

Best regards,

 

Niels

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by William Michael

I wish I could help with this! Very cool.

Very interesting. There was some groundbreaking solar astronomy performed on the Skylab mission. Perhaps you have some images of the sun taken through narrow-band monochromatic filters?

Glenn, I would think those on Skylab were taken on film? either way, no unfortunately I haven't got those.

 

But I do have some rare Skylab film reels with 70mm film coming my way, copies produced by NASA. Will be scanning them, a few hundred photos.

With the help of the unmannedspaceflight forum we've finally been able to trace down the images recovered from our Pioneer tapes.

Lets dive in:

The images recovered from our Pioneer tapes belong to spectrophotometry observations of Planets, Satellites and Asteroids.

 

The online files that match files on our tapes can be found here:

 

IUE Proposal Search

 

The B/W and colour images on QK7992H are LWR01530, LWR01531 and LWR01532.

We've got only a small part of Pione-7937 for now (Reading last year has been dicey) but its metadata says its LWR1888.

 

So what have we learnt from this?

 

1. Its still possible to correctly read and digitize binary data from magnetic tapes, at least into the 70's and 60's. As long as care and expertise is provided.

 

2. With the help of people around the world we were able to correctly process the image data into a common, modern format readily accessible with modern operating systems and software.

 

3. A crucial factor in the correct data processing has been the metadata found on the tape, which was easily readable and provided important clues to its contents.

 

4. Its unlikely the remaining tapes contain some of the lost Pioneer data sets, as they were all part of the same lot.

 

5. Crowdsourcing and openly providing the files has perhaps been the most important factor in the success of this project.

 

Hopefully I will be able to provide data from the remaining tapes at one point.

 

Regards,

Niels