I don’t know what someone who saw the moon landing felt. Apollo 11 in 1969but I do know that a couple of weeks ago half the Internet was glued to social networks to see everything the crew of Artemis II I was sharing. The moment in which the capsule returned to Earth It was exciting, but this time humanity had something unthinkable 50 years ago to follow the event.
NASA didn’t want… When you travel 400,000 kilometers from home, you have to think very hard about what equipment you carry in your suitcase. Like any tourist, American NASA astronauts go with a camera, a Nikon Z9. It has its reason: NASA and the Japanese firm have an agreement to use these cameras. However, the most iconic photo of this trip wasn’t taken with a Nikon: it was taken with an iPhone.
The Photon by Christina Koch
With an iPhone 17 Pro Max, specifically. For years, NASA has refused to allow its astronauts to carry their cell phones because it is not essential for communications and, in addition, it can interfere with the systems of the ships and capsules. But For this occasion they relaxed the rules a little and things went well. The iPhone was going in airplane modeconnected solely to Orion’s internal network to transmit data to stations on Earth.
And, seeing the success, they will surely repeat.
The video. Because they are no longer just the photos: it is the tremendous video that Reid Wiseman, commander of the mission, has shared with the world. Before going into detail, here it is:
It’s taken with that iPhone 17 Pro Max, using the 8x 406,771 kilometers away from Earth to capture how the planet was hiding behind the Moon. According to Wiseman, it is a focal length very similar to that of the human eye (you have to trust it, obviously) and the experience was like watching the sunset on the beach, but from the cosmos.
For her part, astronaut Christina Koch also captured a video in which the iPhone looms mischievously in the reflection:
The best camera. The iPhone is the mobile phone that captures the best video, although its telephotos are not even close to what they offer chinese mobile phonesnot on video either. However, as they say, the best camera is the one you always have with you.
This is as true as a temple, and this case is a perfect example because the Nikon Z9 with its huge lenses could not fit through the gap in the docking hatch window to make that video. The iPhone does.
Apple, so happy. After all the commotion caused by the photos taken on this mission (due to the quantity of them, the quality and how quickly they have been shared), we might think that Apple and NASA signed an agreement, but it seems that is not the case. Simply, it is one more tool than astronauts they came on board to document everything, since the agreement that does exist is the one they have with Nikon. If there was one with Apple, it would be public.
But the truth is that Apple has just had the best ‘shot on iPhone‘ of his story. The company has been pushing that narrative of “we record our events with the iPhone because it is a beastly camera” for years, and now, four astronauts have put those iPhones to the test more than 400,000 kilometers from Earth.
I have no doubt that in the September keynote we will see Apple take advantage of those photos captured with the iPhone on the Moon. And I can only think of how eager Chinese companies will be for their missions to start taking off so they can do the same.
Images | Artemis II, NASA
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