I think it’s funny that I learned this from Fark today, but an Apollo afficianado and author (and much more) named Robert Godwin, with help from NASA, has digitally remastered the Apollo mission footage.
I don’t know when it will be available, but I’ll ask around at SpaceFest next month. I don’t have a hi-def DVD player, but I expect they’ll be cheap enough soon enough that getting a disk now isn’t such a bad idea. I can’t wait to see what this looks like!
The link above has videos (Part 1, and Part 2), which they unfortunately label as "Never before seen footage", which isn’t strictly true; it’s just rare to see this particular stuff shown. The videos are at web-resolution and don’t look that great, but they certainly look better than other web vids I’ve seen. Of course the newscaster mentions the Hoax, but that’s to be expected, too.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Phil.
This is good news. Hopefully all this stuff coming out will be a revitalizing force in getting the public interested in space in a big way.
Did you know about the documentary about the moon missions? It’s called In the Shadow of the Moon and it looks pretty good.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 pm
let’s not forget “For All Mankind,” the Apollo documentary with soundtrack by space music wizard Brian Eno.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
ah, but which hi-def format is it in? I’m not willing to potentially waste my money on a hi-def DVD player and movies only to find out that it is a betamax. One of them is going to die, and until it becomes clear which one it is (comeonnnnn bluray DIE!) I’m not going to buy one.
I wonder how long it will be until the HVD players drop in price enough to be affordable by consumers? 2 years? 5 years? Being able to store 3.9 TB on a single disk kinda blows a Bluray out of the water hehehehe.
Which is why I don’t understand this obsession with HD-DVD and Blu-ray DVD. They are both already outdated (almost) useless technology!
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Do you know if Spacecraft Films is working with this? I’ve bought some of their meticulous and lovingly produced DVD sets and have been stunned by the high quality. (I really am just a satisfied customer, too. And if they release the remastered footage I’ll be one again.)
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:30 pm
They got the quote wrong!
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong
There should be an ‘a’ between the words ‘for man’. He did actually say:
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Apparently someone carefully analysed the original tapes, and found it, as was reported earlier this year.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:57 pm
This is cool, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll be much more thrilled when they find the original recordings of Armstrong stepping onto the moon.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/nasa.html
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:05 am
To gopher65: Yes I think you are gonna choose the betamax, Blueray seem to be ahead being the chosen HD format supported by Blockbuster.
I’m still waiting on the sideline though, you never know….
One of my friends once asked me advice in choosing a video format, he didn’t listen to my advice an bought betamax e few months before the format was dropped by all manufacturers and video stores. Following my advice wouldn’t have been any better though, I recommended that he should buy a Video 2000 format VCR.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:35 am
gopher65: “Which is why I don’t understand this obsession with HD-DVD and Blu-ray DVD. They are both already outdated (almost) useless technology!”
My guess would be, that if the industry moguls had acted like grown-ups, and just flipped a flippin’ coin or something, and chosen one standard, then next-Gen DVD would have been out some time ago already. Thus, they wouldn’t have been out-of-date before even becoming established.
Instead, we have competing standards, expensive hardware, obnoxious DRM requirements, and limited benefits for the cost (in comparison to the upgrade from VHS to DVD). Does that sound like the industry shooting itself in the foot (with a machine gun) to you? To me it sounds like “rat-a-tat-tat!”
Most often, industry politics has far more of an impact on end-user adoption of new technology, than the actual benefits of that tecnology.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 am
Nivag, try looking at this LanguageLog post (and the links to their earlier discussions of that same ‘study’ – I can’t be arsed to link them separately.)
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003635.html
Let’s just say that the professional phonologists ain’t too impressed.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:41 am
Is this movie footage (which I presume would be 16mm) or is this from the video camera that they were having the whole issue with the original slow-scan tapes with?
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:17 am
You easily duped fools, this isn’t remastered — it’s been reshot. I have some friends at Lucas Films, and they’ve been working on this for months, updating the original special effects to make them appear more real. I have it on good authority that Josh Hartnet’s playing Armstrong in this version. They’re actually doing this as test footage for NASAs next trip to the moon.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
looks like they changed the tag to “exclusive footage”
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 am
Ha! If I was going to fake a moon landing, Lucasfilm would not be my first choice for the special effects. These are the guys who gave us Jar Jar Binks, after all.
Seriously though, I’d go for the effects crew that worked on Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Much more convincing.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
“In space no one can eat ice cream”
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I hate it. They show Greedo shooting at Neil Armstrong first.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:53 pm
A debunking of the Moan Hoax was on Hannity last night! I was hoping to see the BA jump in and wrestle it down, but nope. At least they debunked it.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
He should have said, “What?! Wrestling is fake?” and left it at that. If people need an explanation they can find it. I suppose he does have a point. In cases of fraud usually someone would crack after 35 years. But people can keep secrets and it isn’t convincing proof. A reiteration of NASA’s explanation that the moon rocks are the best evidence. Faking something to look like it is of extraterrestrial origin would be much harder than faking a moon landing. Another aspect of the same issue, no alien artifact has ever been shown to be of anything other than terrestrial origin. How can one tell? Easy–the isotopic concentrations are different on different planets and bodies.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:19 am
>>> Easy–the isotopic concentrations are
>>> different on different planets and bodies.
Grab someone out of a trailer park and tell them that. Watch their eye glaze over.
>>> But people can keep secrets and it isn’t convincing proof.
Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
[...] New Moon Landing Footage Digitally Re-Mastered The Apollo mission has never looked so hot. (via Phil) [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
“One small stepfra man” is what he said — “step fer uh man” — it’s a Southern thing.
I had no problem understanding him.
It’s y’all out there who have trouble understanding we-uns.
I had to learn to speak Midwest Standard to survive outside the South.
But I tell you, boys, when the Highway Patrol pulls me over, I speak my native tongue.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:26 am
[...] on the heels of the remastering of the Apollo movie footage comes the news that every photograph taken above and on the surface of the Moon is being rescanned [...]
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
[...] Meanwhile, in a more consumer-oriented move, a Canadian space buff named Robert Godwin has created the first high definition transfers of Apollo video — and you can buy it on high definition DVD, and Blu-Ray Disc. Godwin’s local TV station has a brief blurb on the discs here, while Bad Astronomy chats about it here. [...]