Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface ... magnetic tapes recording surface conditions just after the first Moon landing have been discovered under the seats of Australian physics students.
Credit: NASA
Future moon dust experiments set up the equipment further away from the lunar modules, and carried glass-covered solar cells to reduce the impact of dust accumulating on the instrumentation.
On Apollo 11, the dust detector was attached to the seismometer unit. O'Brien's Lunar Dust Detector Experiment (also called the Dust, Thermal and Radiation Engineering Measurements Package) was designed to assess long term effects of the lunar surface environment on silicon solar cells used on the Apollo missions.
This was achieved by measuring the dips in power supply caused by high-energy cosmic particles, ultraviolet radiation and dust and debris, the data also having implications for the health and safety of astronauts exposed to extraterrestrial conditions.
The re-discovery of the magnetic tapes at Curtin follows NASA's admission in August this year that it no longer knew where to find the original video tapes of the 1969 landing and Armstrong's famous speech to at least 600 million people around the world.
The originals were recorded at three tracking stations - one in the U.S. and two in Australia at Honeysuckle Creek tracking station in the Australian Capital Territory and Parkes radio telescope in central-western New South Wales. Recorded on telemetry tapes, they are said to be the best quality images of the landing (unconverted slow scan TV) yet to be seen by a public still fascinated by the early space race. These tapes were mislaid in the early 1980s on their way to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
O'Brien brought his data tapes to WA when he left the University of Sydney to head up the state's first Environmental Protection Authority. He placed the tapes in the safe hands of Curtin colleague John de Laeter, emeritus professor of applied physics, whose office is now a temporary home to some of the 28 centimetre-diameter tapes.
When I visited de Laeter's office to view the tapes, they looked new, but their age was given away by the fading labels on the plastic covers that detailed in handwritten pen the date and particulars of the lunar surface recordings.
The first 25 years of their storage life at Curtin was in a closet-sized store room in a small marine science laboratory in the main physics building. They were later moved to bigger premises under the lecture hall where they have languished underneath the seats of countless physics students for years.
O'Brien decided to go looking for the tapes after reading about mislaid television tapes that NASA and Australian scientists are still looking for.
At first, one box of O'Brien's old tapes was found. Then, a second search last week by de Laeter, O'Brien and a laboratory manager turned up the rest of the boxed tapes just as the searchers were about to give up. The tapes were almost obscured under outdated electronic equipment which the men had to move.
O'Brien was unavailable for comment.
Read Buzz Aldrin's account of what it's like to walk on the Moon here.
I have read about this too
I have read about this two month ago - hard to belive, that they had lost such a important document! Regards, Manuel Smaaz
Lost Moon Landing Tapes Discovered
As my family and I now caretake the OTC Dish at Carnarvon WA, I would like to find out how involved this facility was during the Apollo 11 mission and the "moonwalk". I have had varying accounts of the role that the Earth Station in Carnarvon played and would like some information from anyone who actually knows and can confirm its role in this historic event. I can be contacted via e-mail at: fear@westnet.com.au .
Why the Apollo missions were so important
Since the first half of the 20th century mankind has established their ability to change scientific existence upon the earth inexorably, by establishing themselves upon the moon, it should have been possible to define certain datum events that are the true nature of the solar system for example temperature variation. John F Kennedy had this vision, it is so sad that such bravery of mankinds certain special creatures on earth is so readily destroyed by the total cowardice of others. Thank goodness for JFK. From John
Here is how to interpret this article...
No one discovered anything. The public is constantly tested for strength of belief in certain myths. This monitoring is routine. When belief in a certain myth, i.e. Apollo moon landings, need reinforcement, articles such as this appear in the main stream media. Scientists conducting basic research depend on government funding for support. Such funding is political, meaning you have to "play ball" regardless of the value or quality of your research. Therefore, the surfacing of such an article signifies that the myth needed reinforcement and, to no surprise, there are scientists willing to "play ball". Everybody needs to start paying attention to these devices of public control. The world government is like a dog that only knows so many tricks. When the dog runs out of tricks he will repeat the tricks he's already performed. Likewise, the world government keeps repeating the same bunch of tricks ad nauseum.
Here is how to interpret this article...
Been going on for thousands of years.
you are not intelligent
You have no idea what you are talking about when you insinuate man did not go to the moon. My grandfather was involved in the Space Program. How dumb do you think NASA was? For one, someone will one day go to the moon again, prob in 20-25 years. There is quite a bit of garbage that was left behind - moon rovers, footprints, flags, experimental equipment. Surely that would know they would eventually be caught if it was one big Hoax. NASA brought back hundreds of pounds of moon rock that scientists and nations around the world verified to be not of early origin. You have watched one too many Fox conspiracy specials. You just want a conspiracy. Also, it's not like the US went to the moon, once or twice, they went over a half dozen times. Why would they fake it and how would they fake it that many times and create more potential people to expose their secret to? That being the astronauts.
So why hasn't any country in
So why hasn't any country in the world...why hasn't MAN, been back to the moon? Why does NASA say we'll have the technology in 15-25 years that allows man to get to the moon and back safely?
Supposedly, we had the necessary technology in 1969. Or did we?
wake up!!!
Hello!! how more gullible can you be!
1. My grandfather was involved in the Space Program
I supose your grandfather was actually there the day the Apollo was launched. And he was on the shuttle too when it landed on the moon.
2. How dumb do you think NASA was? For one, someone will one day go to the moon again, prob in 20-25 years.
Then i guess they will show us exactly what a Con artist NASA is! There was a time in history when no one believed that man controlled flight was possible. The wright brothers where thought to be 'dreamers'. Didnt they prove the world wrong when they built the 1st man controlled airplane? The point is, at the time NASA obviously believed that landing on the moon was impossible... so they reasoned that faking a landing was actually possible! i guess we will see oneday when new 'dreamers' like the Wright brothers actually land on the moon and disprove NASA's moon landing!
How is it that the tapes mysteriously got taped over? come one dude.. wake up!!! its obvious that we now have technology available that will be a able to detect the accuracy of the recordings. NASA obviosly did not want these tapes to fall into the wrong hands so they conveniently 'recorded' over them!
Why would they fake it?.. i can think of a million reasons!! they had to beat the Russians for one... another thing... why is it that no other country has been able to land on the moon?
Russians landedv in the Moon as well
According to records, Russians installed mirrors facing earth on the Moon. They also, as NASA did it, sent robots to perform such a task.
The records of the Australian tapes won't vindicate at all the idea that men landed in the Moon in the 60's. The only thing that these tapes may confirm is that in those years US and Russians sent spacecrafts which landed in the Moon, collected stones here and there, and the mirrors and other sensors were installed on it.
The Australian tapes are the sure evidence that robots and spacecrafts from different institutions and organizations were already sent to the Moon, but nothing can prove that men went to the Moon and came back...only the manipulated copies made by NASA to fake such a thing.
sorry but they really did
sorry but they really did land on the moon.
beleave it or not but neal armstrong had a son and his name was james mathuew armstrong.
jamie(short for james) had four children kary,james matheuw II, andrew,and micheal. they all had kids except for andrew he died shortly after his 4th birthday of a heart disease. kary was my best friend growing up and we used to sit down with neil and he would tell us all about the mission!!!
it was so exillerating to here about the moon and how you weigh so little.
(kari was almost like the daughter neil never had!)
.........as you can see i am pretty old i had my daughter type this for me but it is all true. except for one thing kari was ........
....me!