Data Recovered From Space Shuttle Columbia
Posted on: Saturday, 10 May 2008, 19:00 CDT
For years, Jon Edwards, an engineer with Kroll Ontrack Inc. just outside Minneapolis, has recovered data from seemingly impossible situations, including fires, floods and other natural disasters. But his latest feat sets a new standard.
Mr. Edwards has found missing data on a disk drive from the space shuttle Columbia, which fell to earth as the craft disintegrated in 2003.
"When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn't even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted," Edwards told the Associated Press.
"It looked pretty bad at first glance, but we always give it a shot."
The drive had been used to store data from a scientific experiment on the properties of liquid xenon during the ill-fated mission.
While most of the information had been transmitted back to Earth during the shuttle’s mission, Edwards was able to recover the rest. As a result, NASA and other researchers were able to publish reports about the experiment, which led Kroll Ontrack to share the details of its salvage efforts.
Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Foam insulation that dislodged from an external fuel tank had damaged the shuttle. The mangled disk drive, like other debris, was discovered in Texas. Six months later, a NASA contractor had sent the drive to data recover specialist Kroll Ontrack.
Edwards was initially pessimistic about the chances of recovering data from the damaged drive, with its scorched metal and plastic elements. In addition, the seal on the side that keeps out dirt and dust also had also melted, making the drive vulnerable to particles that can scratch and damage the materials embedded inside, destroying their ability to hold data in endless 1s or 0s, depending on their magnetic charge.
However, Edwards found that the core of the drive, which contains the spinning metal platters that actually store data, was not destroyed. The platters had been scratched and pitted, but fortunately the 340-megabyte drive was only half full, and the damage occurred where the data had not been stored. Edwards attributes the results to good luck, since the onboard computer was running an ancient operating system, DOS, which does not disperse data all over drives the way other systems do.
Edwards used a chemical solution to clean the platters, and then used them in a new drive. To his gratification, two days later he was able to recover 99 percent of the drive’s data.
Blasted by a fireball during re-entry into the atmosphere, two other drives discovered among Columbia’s wreckage had lost the ability to hold a magnetic charge and were not able to have their data recovered, further illustrating the stroke of luck Edwards had with the first drive.
As a result of Mr. Edwards’ work, researchers were able to publish the Columbia experiment on the properties of liquid xenon in the April issue of the science journal Physical Review E. An abstract of the report, which led Kroll Ontrack to share the facts of its salvage effort, can be viewed here.
NASA also wrote a report about the experiment. It can viewed at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/25apr_cvx2.htm.
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports
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