Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/jplnews2/1297.pr

Text File | 1993-05-03 | 4KB | 74 lines

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE [phone]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    A NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory manager Tuesday said a
General Accounting Office report released last week was
erroneous in its conclusion that JPL planetary mission data were
lost in storage.
    The GAO report implied considerable damage had been done to
JPL's data tapes from past planetary missions while the tapes
were stored at the Federal Records Center in Laguna Niguel.
    "Virtually no data from past JPL planetary missions has
been lost," said Arthur Zygielbaum, manager of JPL's Science
Information Systems Office. In fact, JPL has active programs to
make this data easily accessible and useful to scientists for
generations to come, he said.
    For example, JPL is currently storing and distributing data
on compact disks -- read-only memory (CD-ROMs), which are like
compact disks in home stereos. Each disk can hold data equal to
more than five full magnetic tapes.
    Data from the 135,000 tapes recently recalled from the
federal facility are being cataloged.
    The GAO had said 50 percent of the tapes may be damaged
beyond recovery or contain data of little or no value.
    "In contrast," said Zygielbaum, "of the 35,000 evaluated so
far 90 percent were valuable and useful and 10 percent were
duplicated data or backup material.

    "The GAO report said that NASA has not performed an agency-
wide inventory on data holdings," he said. "It is more accurate
to say that NASA has not completed such an inventory. NASA has
initiated a data census effort involving JPL and the Goddard
Space Flight Center in Maryland and is developing a Phase One
report on this effort.
    "The GAO complained that JPL was spending scarce resources
to store data of little or no value. In fact JPL is in the
process of evaluating the 135,000 tapes to determine what is
disposable. Prior to the evaluation no one can say what
percentage of that data is of no value."
    The GAO report was quoted as asserting that the 1983
Planetary Image Conversion Task efforts to restore 10-year old
tapes often led to their destruction.
    Zygielbaum stated that the task, which cost $459,000 in
1983, resulted in preserving 99 percent of the data in question
and converting that data to higher density media (and fewer)
tapes. "In the end some of the old tapes were indeed destroyed,"
he said, "but only after the data was successfully copied."
    In 1988 JPL recognized the need to initiate a follow-on
effort and the Planetary Data Restoration Project was started
with four main goals.
    They were to preserve data and make data available to the
user; to move all magnetic tapes to an acceptable environment
immediately; to reduce the volume of magnetic tapes by
converting to higher density media and disposing of duplicate
and/or worthless tapes; and finally to transfer converted tapesand archive responsibility to the Planetary Data System (PDS) or
other appropriate NASA facility.
    According to Tom Renfrow, Manager of the PDS, "Of the 140
gigabytes (giga=billion) the PDS is responsible for, over 20
gigabytes have been cataloged and are being prepared for
distribution on CD-ROMs."
    While JPL officials expressed concern that some of the
GAO's comments were incorrect interpretations of fact, they
agreed that NASA's space data represents an important national
resource and thus they are taking steps to maintain it.
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