Lost NASA Tapes

  • Thread starter Thread starter themaddog
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One thing they didn't mention in the article is that NASA still uses Quantegy reel-to-reel instrumentation tape for shuttle missions. :)
 
That's pretty cool, I didn't know that!

I just finished up a digital forensics course here at BU. Our teacher is head of the cybercrime division of the FBI. He told us that the FBI still uses tape for storage because of the long-term unreliability of optical media.

So, at the end of that lecture, I had to tell him that I had taken that portion of his class to heart, and told him that I home record on tape based machines, and understanding how they functioned allowed me to understand how the hard disks write data, how the file system works, etc.

Well, turns out he owned a 388 back in the day and gigged in an alternative band back in the '80s here in Boston. We started talking about home recording, he expressed a lot of interest about wanting to get back into it, but then went on to talk how far computer recording has come. He asked me which platform I use to record, and I had to reiterate that I record on a tape machine.

I tried to explain that he probably wouldn't be happy with the digital stuff, and how cheaply you can acquire the analog. I don't think he got it, and I guess you can't blame him since all day long he does computer work. Although, for me, getting to use a reel (and real) tape machine is an escape from that.

-MD
 
I can understand his perspective. I took a little hiatus from recording for a couple years in late 90’s and fully expected that digital would have arrived in the mean time. I was rather horrified to see the direction things had taken while I was away.

When you’ve been out of the loop for a while you just assume your old stuff is out-dated… and of course you hear in the press how great digital is… blah, blah, blah.

Ok, if he’s in the FBI tell him that the controversy swirling around digital vs. analog is on the level of 9mm vs. 45 caliber or fast and light loads vs. heavier penetrating bullets… He’ll get it. :D

By the way, I do computer/network all day long as well.
 
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He's more like an analyst over a "true" field agent, but I caught him with his sidearm in class one day, and asked him if it was for cheaters, he he.

Wish I could talk to him more about it, but the course just ended. I'm hoping that they're going to offer a second digital forensics course to follow it up, and if he's teaching it I'll definitely be back, even though I just finished all of my courses and am now graduated.

Also, I knew that you worked with computers from previous posts, and that you had "been out of the loop" then back to analog after being disappointed with digital; that's why I figured I'd mention it.

-MD
 
This thread also reminded me of an article I saved last year when Quantegy appeared to be down for the count. It's intersting what Les Waffen of the National Archives and Records Administration had to say:

Agencies prepare for Digital Age

Shortage of magnetic tape forces feds to look for other storage media

BY Aliya Sternstein
Published on Feb. 7, 2005

A shortage of professional-grade tape is prompting government agencies such as the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress and NASA to switch to digital media.

Quantegy, one of the last U.S. suppliers of analog tapes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and closed its only U.S. plant. Quantegy was the primary supplier of tapes to federal agencies, but now that supply line is in jeopardy. Agencies must either modernize, a costly and risky process of switching to digital storage media, or look overseas for a source of high-quality analog tapes.

But audiotape is not outdated. NARA officials will reluctantly switch from Quantegy tape to WAV files saved to digital media, such as CDs. "Audiotapes are not becoming old-fashioned," said Les Waffen, an audiovisual archivist in NARA's special media division. "They're just not going to be available anymore."

NARA officials have begun saving audio recordings, such as the CIA's radio monitoring of POWs and MIAs during the Vietnam War and oral arguments before the Supreme Court, as analog recordings and WAV files. NARA officials anticipate that their audiotape supplies will be depleted in three to four months.

"The beauty of analog is it's simple and it works," Waffen said. But NARA is being forced into the Digital Age, he said. NARA officials will stop using audiotape unless they can find new sources, perhaps in Europe, Japan or India.

Waffen said the quality of those tapes is unknown. But he has other concerns about the cost, longevity and reliability of digital media, especially under fluorescent lighting conditions. NARA's storage costs have tripled since the agency started saving WAV files on a server, and digital storage requires a support staff of information technology professionals.

:)

Of course back then they didn't know how things would turn out -- that we now have two tape manufacturers and a third on the way. Fun, isn't it? :D
 
Well, we pay for their tape or CD-R's in the end anyways, he he.

-MD
 
Beck said:
"... unless they can find new sources, perhaps in Europe, Japan or India."

:D
Click to expand...
in Japan?
who? where? :confused:

in India?????!!!!!???
double-who? and double-where? ...double-confused I am. :confused: :confused:
 
Apparently there is an Indian firm that makes red-oxide tape for the domestic market, but it's not supposed to be very good. I don't know what they're called (it came up briefly during the Quantegy crisis)
 
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