Rescue of data from Pioneer 10 & 11 tapes at JPL needed. Vintage computers slated for demolition.

[Bill Dawson]

I came across this very interesting, on topic story about 
the detection of an anomalous acceleration, the need to 
recover data which "exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 
9-track magnetic tapes", and the imminent scrapping of the 
original computers at:

http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly1_0510.html

A snippet from the article:

"With the spacecraft now silent, we cannot expect future data, 
so we must look to the past. In fact, there are hundreds of 
tapes containing data taken before 1987, when the spacecraft 
were between 10 and 40 AU from the Sun. This data from the time 
the Pioneers were still in the midst of this planetary realm 
could be crucial to solving the anomaly.

Unfortunately, this data is stored on hundreds of ancient 
nine-track tapes, now lodged under a staircase at JPL. The tapes 
can only be read by equally ancient computers, giants compared 
to modern machines, which are slated for demolition. We must 
transfer this data to more modern media readable by up-to-date 
computers, but time is running out."

Are there any list members interested in assisting in the transfer 
of this data to "more modern media"?

Does anyone know what the "ancient computers" are and if a rescue 
of them from destruction is feasible? 

Regards,

Bill Dawson

http://www.swtpc.com

whdawson