Here’s How Hackers Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos While Working From An Abandoned McDonald’s

In Silicon Valley, not far away from NASA’s Ames Research Park, you can find an absolutely bizarre establishment. From the outside, it just looks like an old, derelict McDonald’s – but inside it serves another purpose entirely. Where once burgers and fries were prepared in this place, now it acts as a base for so-called “techno-archaeologists.” And these people have made it their mission to save an amazing piece of history.

Hacker home

No longer bearing the famous huge letters of “McDonald’s” on its roof, this building now goes by the name “McMoon’s.” Its windows, meanwhile, are adorned with the skull and bones symbol, which is a piece of iconography closely associated with hackers nowadays. And when you go inside, you won’t find any burger grills.

Sharing ethos

Instead, you’ll see a small gang of people beavering away at what looks like something scientific and furtive. But given their hacker ethos, there are no secrets here. The workers share their results with anyone who wants them, without expecting any recompense for their time and labor. Even when they’ve given plenty of both.

Free base

One of the gang’s leaders, Keith Cowing, told Wired magazine why he was sited in the old McDonald’s in 2014. He said, “I had a choice between the barbershop and this building – we didn’t really care what sort of building they gave us, we just didn’t want to pay for it. The surplus folks at NASA Ames where all the old computers and stuff go, they love us because we come over and make all the old stuff work.”

Started small

The gang started as a small affair, but it’s since grown. Now the facility houses specialists who turn old materials that would otherwise just gather dust into new digital forms. And the McDonald’s has turned out to be the perfect location. After all, it’s purpose-built to be able to deal with chemicals that pose hazards.