| Title | Nvidia Debunks Moon Landing Conspiracy Photo Using Virtual Light | |
| Date | Monday September 22 2014, @11:53PM | |
| Author | n1 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the co-conspirators dept. | ||
For years Moon landing conspiracy theories have claimed that some or all elements of the Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA with the aid of other organizations. Now Rob Crossley reports that Graphics card vendor Nvidia says that one of the photos used to bolster the moon landing conspiracy theory can be explained with new lighting technology. The photo taken during the 1969 mission, shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin illuminated despite standing in the shadow of the Lunar module with conspiracy theorists claiming the photo would not have been possible unless there was an additional light source--such as a studio light.
Nvidia recreated the scene in Unreal Engine 4 and--using its global illumination technology--was successfully able to recreate the image with only the sun as a light source. Nvidia discovered that there were two key factors, both of which could be addressed using voxel global illumination. First, the moon's surface is comprised of what are essentially thousands of tiny mirrors -- moon dust if you will -- that bounce light back at a viewer. Yet that didn't account for the necessary level of brightness to light up Aldrin. The second factor was Neil Armstrong -- who was off to the side of Aldrin in full view of the Sun -- wearing a 85 percent reflective spacesuit that contained five layers of the highly reflective fabric Mylar blended with four layers of the flexible yet durable material Dacron on top of an additional two layers of heat resistant Kapton. Of course, further evidence supporting the Apollo moon landings has been released many times over the years, including high-def shots taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing lander tracks and footprints, and 2012 images showing five out of the six Apollo mission American flags.
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