OT Vast amounts of NASA data in weird formats (Long)

Now that the subject line somewhat matches the topic. NASA and other unnamed government agencies collect "LOTS" of data. They have lots of tapes, some ASCII card images on tape, and other raw formats. Now when a project is winding down do you think anyone "cares"/spends money to transfer any data into newer formats. The original software that was written probably handles the data and works OK. I understand that lots of LANDSAT data has cloud cover obscuring it. Do you save even the "apparently" worthless stuff? The first thing any engineer/programmer tries is to pack the data onto the tape as efficiently as possible. 12 bit pixels get stored 2 pixels in every 3 bytes. Everybody used different methods to handle uneven numbers of pixels, including padding, and truncation. How do you decide how the data was stored. I'm sure the paper that documents the data format is detached from the physical tape. The short answer is that when data is collected no one has any idea of what eventually may be done with the data. They only expend as much time, energy, and money as the initial project seems to justify. I will try and find my copy of a GAO report that I purchased on the magnitude of the data storage/retention problem. They had pictures of doors in the data vault being held open by stacks of tapes. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu Data Hound extraordinary, I'm burying my floppy disks for posterity. Maybe we should use gold floppy disks will not oxidize and absorb moisture in any short term interval.