[fitsbits] Preservation of digital data guaranteed to last at least 500 years

[Tom McGlynn (NASA/GSFC Code 660.1)]

Very interesting to hear about!

William Pence wrote:
> ...

>   These islands are a protected demilitarized territory and the archive is located within a 
> mountain that has been proven to resist nuclear disaster.
Curious how they feel that this has been proven?  Unless there have been some nuclear disasters kept 
secret!

> Can any astronomical observatory claim to have anything close to this level of data preservation 
> security??
>
> -Bill
>

I would doubt it, but it seems to me that this begs the question of what is the appropriate level of 
security for our data. I'm not sure that the Vatican's approach would necessarily be appropriate for 
astronomy data. While our observations may have historical interest in 500 years -- e.g., the plates 
that Hubble used to first suggest that the universe is expanding -- and thus valuable that way, they 
are unlikely to be have very much scientific value (in the sense of needing to revisit the original 
datasets).  And in an age where our observations are increasingly digital,  it is the replication of 
critical datasets across many institutions that is probably their greatest assurance of survival.  
Nor would I think that the threat of physical destruction is the real threat to astronomical data. 
That seems more likely to be difficulty maintaining the associations with calibrations and tools used.

It's a really interesting question since I think that our archives are currently focused on 
preserving data generation by generation. We don't currently build archives such that the data will 
be available in the future regardless of whether the archive continues to maintain them.  Maybe it's 
all just an attempt to keep job security!

     Tom McGlynn
passing on the responsibility to the next generation to continue to do so, rather than