The scene took place during the approach to the Moon: Commander Reid Wiseman stepped away from the NASA command center, raised his iPhone 17 Pro Max Standing in front of the Orion spacecraft window, he displayed a photograph of the Chebyshev crater taken from the Artemis II mission itself. Within minutes, the image began circulating around the world.
Beyond the visual impact, what is striking is the context in which the photograph was taken: a consumer phone, floating in microgravity, without a tripod, more than 400.000 kilometers from Earth and pointing towards the far side of the Moon, a region completely invisible from our planet and accessible only to space missions.
How the photo of Chebyshev crater was obtained with an iPhone
The image that has gone viral shows the Chebyshev crater, a geological feature of about 179 kilometers in diameterIt has been cited for decades on lunar maps as a key reference point. It is located on the far side of the satellite, so it can only be observed from a spacecraft that has orbited the Moon, as Artemis II has now done.
To take the photograph, the Orion crew decided to completely turn off the cabin lights. The goal was to eliminate any reflections on the windows and allow the sensor to... iPhone 17 Pro Max It will capture the lunar surface in the greatest possible detail, without unwanted glare or internal light sources that would ruin the framing.
With the ship in darkness, Reid Wiseman stood by the window, held the phone in his hands in microgravity, and used the new 8x zoom of the Pro Max model. Without tripod or standAnd with his body literally floating, he framed the crater and shot the mobile phone camera, relying on the device's stabilization and image processing.
The result was a sharp and detailed photograph of Chebyshev Crater, with a striking contrast between the illuminated area and the shadows of the lunar surface. During the live broadcast, NASA Mission Control itself identified the crater, confirming its exact location and emphasizing the value of the image as a visual record of the far side of the Moon.
The space agency explained that the crew is sending images of the lunar flyby back to Earth gradually. The highest resolution version Wiseman's photo had not yet been published on official channels at the time the first frames were released, but it is expected that, once available, it will allow for a more detailed analysis of the iPhone's 8x zoom capabilities in an extreme environment like this.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max debuts on a manned lunar mission
Artemis II has become NASA's first crewed lunar mission to incorporate state-of-the-art smartphones as part of its photographic equipment. On board are four units of iPhone 17 Pro Max, which coexist with professional Nikon cameras (including D5 and Z 9 models mentioned by the agency) and several GoPros aimed at capturing action video at different points on the ship.
The use of commercial smartphones is not common in these types of missions, partly due to the strict security requirements imposed by NASA. For the iPhone 17 Pro Max to travel with the crew, the device had to undergo a four-phase homologation process, as explained by researcher Tobias Niedervieser of BioServe Space Technologies.
That protocol included an evaluation by a safety committee, a detailed analysis of the potential risks the phone could pose to the flight, the design of mitigation measures, and a battery of technical tests to verify its behavior in space conditions. Only after passing all these steps was the phone authorized to be part of the mission's equipment.
For security reasons, iPhones on board operate with significant restrictions: without Internet connection or Bluetooth And with highly controlled use, essentially limited to capturing photos and videos and using applications specifically approved by NASA. The agency thus sought to leverage consumer technology without introducing elements that could interfere with the spacecraft's systems.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced months earlier that his intention was to equip the Crew-12 and Artemis II missions with modern devices that would allow astronauts to document their experience and generate educational content. He also emphasized that the certification of this type of hardware had been completed in Record time, given the complexity of certifying a commercial mobile device for prolonged use in orbit and in a lunar environment.
A phone designed to withstand… even in space
Among the factors that have worked in favor of the iPhone 17 Pro Max is its design. The device features protection. Ceramic Shield 2 on both sidesIt features reinforced glass, which Apple touted as one of the most durable on the mobile market. In a context where devices are exposed to impacts, sudden temperature changes, and constant handling in microgravity, the robustness of the chassis is no small detail.
During his coverage of the mission, space journalist Owen Sparks shared clips from the official broadcast showing an astronaut putting an iPhone 17 Pro Max in his leg pocket shortly before liftoff. Other videos, filmed in orbit, show the crew passing the phone around in zero gravity to record everyday moments of the journey.
The combination of professional cameras and consumer phones allows NASA to have two types of complementary material: on the one hand, high-precision scientific imagesOn the one hand, there are high-resolution images taken with dedicated lenses and sensors; on the other, there are more spontaneous and close-up scenes, captured by the astronauts with a device similar to the one many people carry in their pocket every day.
Another striking aspect is that, according to information gathered by media outlets such as The New York Times, Apple did not participate directly in the certification process with NASA. Even so, the company has publicly highlighted that one of its phones managed to meet, on its own, the demanding requirements necessary to operate on a long-duration mission outside Earth orbit.
In Europe, where lunar exploration often receives significant media attention, the presence of a familiar device for the general public Such a mission reinforces the feeling of closeness to a space program that, on many occasions, is perceived as something distant or reserved for highly specialized teams.
Space photography with an everyday device
Chebyshev's photo, taken with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, adds to a larger album being built by Artemis II. In addition to this image, the crew has recorded other significant scenes of the far side of the Moon and lunar orbit, including a new version of the phenomenon known as... “Earthrise” or Earth's departure, which is reminiscent of the iconic image of Apollo 8 in 1968.
That historic Earthrise image was captured with a Hasselblad camera and color film, after a very specific spacecraft rotation maneuver, and with the added difficulty that the photographic material had to be returned to Earth for development. Today, however, Artemis II can digitally transmit a large portion of its images almost in real time, which makes a huge difference in terms of dissemination and scientific analysis.
The new Earthrise image captured by the current mission shows, as described by NASA, the contrast between the planet's night side and the illuminated hemisphere, where the following can be seen: cloud formations over Australia and OceaniaAlthough the photo taken with the iPhone has been the media focus, the set of images from the mission provides the European and global scientific community with a very valuable working basis.
In addition to the lunar departure, the crew photographed Mare Orientale, a concentric ring structure on the lunar surface that helps researchers study how large impacts shape the crust of planets and moons. This type of visual data, properly georeferenced, is especially useful for teams at control centers in Europe and the United StatesThey are preparing for future robotic and manned missions.
Meanwhile, NASA has begun publishing some of this material on its official Flickr account and other open repositories. When the iPhone photograph of Chebyshev Crater was released, the full-resolution version wasn't yet available in these catalogs, but other images taken with Nikon and GoPro cameras aboard Orion were.
For the general public, especially in European countries where iPhone use is widespread, it is particularly striking to see that a mobile phone similar to the one used daily It has been able to clearly record a crater on the far side of the Moon, under conditions that just a few years ago would have been associated exclusively with high-cost scientific cameras.
This milestone does not replace the work of professional photographic teams, but it does demonstrate that the boundary between consumer technology and space instrumentation is narrowing, opening the door to new ways of documenting missions and bringing lunar exploration closer to citizens in Europe and around the world.
What happened with the photograph of the Chebyshev crater illustrates the extent to which the combination of a next-generation lunar mission And an advanced phone can change the way we see space: a crew orbiting the Moon, a completely dark cabin, a mobile phone floating in microgravity, and an image of the far side that, even taken with an everyday device, is already part of the recent history of space exploration.
