Data Tools

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) was founded in 2007 to recover Lunar Orbiter mission imagery from original analog data tapes recorded as the images first arrived on Earth between 1966-1967. Funded with a mix of private and NASA money, we were able to rebuild original 50 year old FR-900 tape drives, build a modern version of the original demodulator, and recover imagery at previously unachieved resolution and dynamic range. We recovered our first image in November 2008, e enow-iconic "Earthrise" image taken by Lunar Orbiter 1 in August 1966.

"The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Packages (ALSEPs) on Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 returned data from the lunar surface until September 1977. These long-term in-situ data, along with data from Apollo surface and orbital experiments, still comprise some of the best information on the Moon's environment. Much of these data were archived at the National Space Science Data Center (now the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, NSSDCA) in the 1970's and 1980's, but a large portion of the data were never submitted.

"ODE Overview: The Orbital Data Explorer (ODE) is a web-based search tool (http://ode.rsl.wustl.edu) developed at NASA’s Planetary Data System’s (PDS) Geosciences Node (http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/). Through ODE, users can search, browse, and down-load a wide range of PDS Mars, Moon, Mercury, and Venus data (A detailed list of current ODE holdings can be found at http://wufs.wustl.edu/ode/odeholdings/index.html).