Earlier this year, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed that astronauts on the Artemis II mission would be allowed to ”fly with the latest smartphones.” Now, The New York Times has reported what it took to make that happen.
No connectivity, just photos and videos
Right now, there are four iPhones 17 Pro Max zipping towards the moon at about 25,000 mph.
And although this is not the first time an iPhone has been on a space mission, Artemis II marks the first time NASA has given each crew member an iPhone so they can take photos and videos.
Apple said it wasn’t involved with NASA’s process for approving iPhones for the Artemis II mission. The company said the mission was the first time an iPhone had fully qualified for extended use in orbit and beyond.
In fact, taking photos and videos is pretty much all the devices can do, since NASA has confirmed to The Times that they “can’t connect to the internet or use Bluetooth.”
But clearing them for flight wasn’t a trivial task, according to the report:
“Typically, the process has four phases, (Tobias Niederwieser, an assistant research professor at BioServe Space Technologies) said. The first introduces the piece of hardware to a safety panel. The second identifies the potential hazards of the hardware, which ranges from moving parts to materials like glass that could shatter. The third lays out a plan for addressing such hazards. The fourth proves that the plan works.”
The iPhone 17 Pro Max features Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and Ceramic Shield on the back. According to Apple, Ceramic Shield 2 is “tougher than any smartphone glass.”
But shatterability wasn’t the only aspect NASA had to consider, per the NYT report:
The process is meant to protect both the crew and the spacecraft, he said. In “a perfectly sealed capsule” in microgravity, when the effects of gravity are so reduced that things appear to be weightless or in free fall, hardware will work in very different conditions than on Earth. Case in point: NASA discussed using Velcro to mount phones in the Orion capsule, the agency said. Before launch, at least one of the phones was zipped into a leg pocket on a flight suit.
You can watch an iPhone 17 Pro Max being packed into the suit of astronaut Jeremy Hansen in the video below:
Despite their bespoke role, the four iPhones aren’t the only cameras onboard. The crew also has access to four GoPro Hero 11 cameras and two Nikon D5 bodies, one of which captured this striking image of Earth illuminated by the full moon:
Whether the Artemis II crew will capture equally stunning photos and videos with their iPhones remains to be seen.
To keep up with what the astronauts share, follow this link.
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