# Moon Landing CT nuts, what say you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 15, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872 "2006-08-15T20:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/1 "2006-08-15T20:53:51Z")
On this new piece of obvious NASA cover-up [here](http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/14/space.tapes.reut/index.html) Kinda convenient how NASA lost the original tapes and recordings isn’t it? Now all we have are “recordings” of “original” “tapes”. Well tapes probably doesn’t need quotes, since they really were tapes… unless… Seriously tho, this is so going to add fuel to a fire that should have died out years ago. And honestly, how in the hell do you lose such a valuable piece of our nations history? How does NASA get a shuttle to fly, but cant keep track of some historically important tapes like these? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/2 "2006-08-15T20:56:43Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > **How does NASA get a shuttle to fly,** but cant keep track of some historically important tapes like these? umm… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/3 "2006-08-16T00:30:59Z")
What we saw on TV in 1969 with the “Live From Moon” subtitle was actually a pretty lousy picture at home, but who’s complaining. Part of the reason being it was a video (NTSC?) feed of another, non broadcast-compatible screen. The tapes aren’t “lost”, they just can’t find them, and it’s not entirely clear they can be played, as it was specialised equipment? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/4 "2006-08-16T02:49:14Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > How does NASA get a shuttle to fly, but cant keep track of some historically important tapes like these? Yeah, we can put a man on the moon but we… oh wait. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/5 "2006-08-16T03:28:36Z")
If they never would have said anything, nobody would have ever known. It isn’t like anyone is ever going to re-master the audio and release it on CD so they we can hear the smallest subtleties about what on up there. We have everything that is on them on other sources and it would take the most insane space-nut audiophile to care about whatever loss of quality occurred in those static filled transmissions. Much of the tapes were just instrument readouts that do much better on digital media that they ever did on a tape and nothing should be lost there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/6 "2006-08-16T06:32:27Z")
It seems less than catastrphic, given that the tapes are likely to be severely degraded anyhow. I was brought up short by this line in the report: > [@cnn](#): > > “‘I wouldn’t say we’re worried – we’ve got all the data. Everything on the tapes we have in one form or another,’ Hautaloma said.” Hautaloma continued, “some of the tapes were transferred to other media, of course there are many pages of transcripts, and we recently extended our contract with aerialists The Flying Mazzini Brothers – have you had a chance to see them? They do a recreation of _Eagle_ docking with _Columbia_ that’s just uncanny. You could hardly tell it from the real thing,” Hautaloma assured reporters, “unless you were some kind of rocket scientist or something.” In addition, the spokesman said, the crew of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin, all still alive, should probably expect a few phone calls asking them to repeat some of the more important things they said 37 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/7 "2006-08-16T08:29:53Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Seriously tho, this is so going to add fuel to a fire that should have died out years ago. Seriously, is there any point at all in trying to persuade conspiracy theorists? The ‘debate’ continues precisely because one side isn’t capable of, or interested in, being persuaded. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/8 "2006-08-16T13:59:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, we can put a man on the moon but we… oh wait. thank you for this! made me laugh first thing in the morning, and the morning wasn’t starting out that great! > [@](#): > > Seriously, is there any point at all in trying to persuade conspiracy theorists No, there isn’t any point. I was just really hoping a CT would be passing thru and add some comments. They are a hoot to read! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/9 "2006-08-16T14:05:54Z")
Not sure we have any Lunar CTs left in stock here. I think we burned the last of them a couple of winters ago. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/10 "2006-08-16T14:11:02Z")
The apparently degraded quality of the original broadcast had nothing to do with the tape and everything to do with the camera used to record the event - it was too good for the broadcast technology at that time. Take a look at [this NPR interview](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5578853) from several weeks ago with one of the techs. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/11 "2006-08-16T14:22:32Z")
“Lost” doesn’t necessarily mean “destroyed”. It _can_ mean “misfiled”. A serious search may turn it up. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/12 "2006-08-16T14:24:25Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > The apparently degraded quality of the original broadcast had nothing to do with the tape and everything to do with the camera used to record the event - it was too good for the broadcast technology at that time. Ah… that’ll be why they ‘disappeared’ it then; I bet you could see the wires in the higher-quality footage, I bet that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/13 "2006-08-16T16:28:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Ah… that’ll be why they ‘disappeared’ it then; I bet you could see the wires in the higher-quality footage, I bet that’s it. Thanks for trying Mange, but without that crazy “I’m being watched” look in your eyes it just doesnt work. Where are all the 9/11, JFK nuts when you need em? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/14 "2006-08-16T16:59:32Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Seriously tho, this is so going to add fuel to a fire that should have died out years ago. And honestly, how in the hell do you lose such a valuable piece of our nations history? How does NASA get a shuttle to fly, but cant keep track of some historically important tapes like these? This is not a problem confined to NASA. Organizations have little interest in preserving their own history: it takes up space, and is not part of their main mission. Cecil has commented on this issue when looking up things like the origin of Oreo and Q-Tips. American Heritage could not find information about the end of Leiderkranz cheese. At best, records are shuffled around; at worst, they are trashed to make room. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/15 "2006-08-16T17:28:42Z")
Someone else started a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=384105) about this a couple of days ago. I’ll say here pretty much what i said in that thread: Sure, it would be nice if they could put their finger on them at a moment’s notice, but it seems likely that it’s simply a matter of going through the storage facility and finding them. As for your question about how it’s possible to lose a collection like this, i gather you’ve never been inside or done research in a major national, state, or even city archive, or a large manuscript research room. The number of boxes of archival material in these places is staggering. Large repositories contain hundreds or thousands of collections, and individual collections routinely run into the hundreds or thousands of boxes. In writing the first volume of his epic biography of Lyndon Johnson, which ended before Johnson even assumed the vice presidency, Robert Caro went through 2,082 boxes of Senate Papers related to that early period in Johnson’s career. While the Civil War era is probably about the most studied period in US history, a friend of mine who works on this era tells me that there are still hundreds, probably thousands, of boxes from the war years in the National Archives that haven’t even been glanced at by historians. Agencies like NASA generate millions of items and thousands of boxes of records every year. Temporarily misplacing one relatively small collection in a repository is cause for a bit of concern, but it’s a bit early to be writing the stuff off as lost. As for the conspiracy theorists, if those morons choose to take this as further “evidence” that the moon landing never occurred, why should the sane among us care? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/16 "2006-08-18T20:01:04Z")
In another [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=380807&highlight=NASA) it was noted that NASA changed their mission statement. Missing tapes, changed mission statement. What’s going on over there?! ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moon-landing-ct-nuts-what-say-you/368872/17 "2006-08-18T20:07:35Z")
> [@](#): > > In writing the first volume of his epic biography of Lyndon Johnson, which ended before Johnson even assumed the vice presidency, Robert Caro went through 2,082 boxes of Senate Papers related to that early period in Johnson’s career. Yes, but at the time those papers were archived, nobody knew what Johnson’s ultimate place in history would be. That’s not the case with the moon landing. People were pretty sure it was going to be considered historically important for a long time. Because of that, I’m surprised it was (apparently) tossed in with a bunch of other more mundane stuff, and not given a special place that was well documented.