Enclosure_4.pdf

ENCLOSURE 4 RFQ No. 80GSFC18Q0008

REPRESENTATIVE TASK ORDER (RTO)

Period of Performance: April 2018 through March 2019

Earth Science Magnetic Tape Data Recovery

Background:

The Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) project within Code 610.2 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has been tasked with recovering unique scientific data from magnetic tapes that are well past their expected media life. The recovery of this data will extend the earth science data record for many types of measurements back through the early 1960s. In many cases, these tapes are fragile and the strength of the imbedded signal significantly degraded. In addition, the early drives on which these tapes were written were manually aligned and differences in alignments between drives could also make the tapes difficult to read. The data is on a variety of tape media, which includes: 7-track tapes, 9-track tapes, 3480 tapes, and 8 mm tapes.

Overview of Support Required:

Support is needed to recover unique scientific data from one hundred fifty (150) magnetic tapes that are well past their expected media life on a variety of tape media. The contractor shall provide the following support:

1. Inventory the shipment of magnetic tapes and compare to the provided NASA GSFC inventory list. Report to NASA GSFC technical representative whether the shipment is complete or note any discrepancies.

2. Take a digital photo of the physical media to capture the label information in order to become part of the media inventory. A digital photo shall be provided for each tape. The purpose of this is to capture all the external label information, much of which could be hand written. Potentially, there could be information on the back of the tape, in which case, two images may be required.

3. Recover and transcribe the data from the one hundred (100) 7-track tapes and fifty (50) 9-track tapes to a binary (8-bit byte) data file. The contractor shall:

- Provide a description of the process for reading the data from the tapes. Specifically, address any processes for delivery with anomalous issues, such as, misaligned tapes, sticky tapes, broken hubs, etc.

- Read the reel media at reduced speeds to reduce stress and friction.

- Handle media tracking issues, such as those resulting from degraded signal strength or alignment issues.

- Handle the problems of old media, including, but not limited to, sticky tapes and dry-rotted plastic hubs, including capability to bake the tapes to remove excess moisture.

- 7-tracks tapes shall be converted to a modern 8-bit format by adding an additional bit.

- 9-track tapes shall be converted to a modern 8-bit format by dropping the parity bit.

- Deliver the data files on external drive. Total of one hundred fifty (150) binary files, one for each tape with filenames that correspond to the tape inventory.

- Assume that 10% of the tapes will require special handling due to degradation.

ENCLOSURE 4 RFQ No. 80GSFC18Q0008

4. Provide an inventory list showing the mapping between NASA tape number and recovered file, including digital picture of each media and labels. Each recovered tape shall include the following:

- Tape ID from NASA Inventory

- File ID (filename) for data file corresponding to tape

- File photo ID(s) for digital photo(s) of tape label

- .csv file ID for .csv file corresponding to data file

- Description of any recovery anomalies. If recovery is unsuccessful, a description of the recovery failure

5. Provide a .csv inventory file of the individual file marks recovered from each tape to clearly identify the beginning and end of individual files on the media, number of records per file, number of bytes per record, and end of tape marker. For each tape, a .csv (comma separated values) shall be created and at a minimum include:

- Number of individual files

- Location of Begin mark of file

- Location End mark of file

- Number of records in file

- Number of bytes per record

- Location of end of tape marker

6. Provide a description for the final disposal of the tapes. Upon written permission from the NASA technical representative, after successful recovery, tapes shall be formally disposed. At a minimum, this shall include removal of all labels and rendering the media unreadable.