During the recent Artemis II space mission, Commander Reid Wiseman showed off a very clear picture of the moon. What makes this special is that he took the photo using a standard iPhone 17 Pro Max. NASA recently decided to let its astronauts bring modern smartphones into space.
The crew members used the new phones to take pictures of their trip back to Earth as the spacecraft approached the lunar surface.
Wiseman used the 8x zoom feature on his iPhone to capture this stellar picture
The crew turned off all the cabin lights inside the Orion capsule to get the best possible view. They wanted to avoid window glare. Wiseman then held his iPhone 17 Pro Max up to the livestream camera so people watching at home could see the image. He mentioned using the 8x zoom feature on his phone to get a closer look at the Chebyshev crater.
It is fun to see normal electronics doing so well in outer space. Apple must be happy to see its hardware working smoothly in orbit.
We are waiting for the full resolution files
NASA will likely share the original photo soon. Leah Mustachio is the live mission commentator for the agency. She explained that the crew is currently finishing tasks after the moon flyby. One of those tasks is sending the large image files back home.
Once the agency gets the data, it will post the high-quality images to its public Flickr account. People are excited to see the final results without the blur of a video stream.
