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

Bill> I came across this very interesting, on topic story about the Bill> detection of an anomalous acceleration, the need to recover Bill> data which "exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 9-track Bill> magnetic tapes", and the imminent scrapping of the original Bill> computers at: Bill> http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly1_0510.html Bill> ...Does anyone know what the "ancient computers" are and if a Bill> rescue of them from destruction is feasible? Just because the computers are scrapped doesn't mean the data are lost. The article is unreasonably alarmist about that. Then again, the reason becomes obvious a few lines later -- the "act now" link demonstrates that this is a "begging for money" gimmick. One also wonders whether tapes "lodged under a staircase" are likely to be important... paul