American chipmaker Nvidia claims that its latest chip can potentially prove if man actually landed on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission of 1969.
Neil Armstrong, the commander of Apollo 11 mission, was the first man ever to step on the surface of the moon. After landing, he famously said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." However, many controversies claim that man never landed on the moon.
Skeptics suggest that the Apollo 11 mission failed and the images and videos released by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was a hoax to cover up the failure of the mission. The pictures and videos of astronauts on the moon are believed by many people to have been shot at a Los Angeles stage.
No concrete proof has ever been found that the moon landing was indeed a hoax. However, many people have questioned the pictures taken by the astronauts while on the moon. One such picture in question is of astronaut Buzz Aldrin climbing down on the surface of the moon from a ladder, which also has the shadow of the moon lander. A hoax theory indicates that the shadow of the moon lander was a result of an artificial source of light.
Nvidia claims that it has used the company's latest hardware called Maxwell to examine in detail if the shadow was from an artificial source of light. The company suggests that Maxwell's technology Voxel-Based Global Illumination (VXGI) can also simulate the bouncing of light from different surfaces and illuminating other surfaces, to help understand the picture better. Nvidia suggests that its examination of the image using Maxwell suggests that the light source is not from an artificial source such as a bulb, but actually the powerful light of the sun.
"Men lost their lives as part of the Apollo project, so it bugs me when people say it was all a hoax. People risked their lives to get to the moon," says Mark Daly, senior director of content development at NVIDIA.
The image was also questioned regarding the absence of stars in the sky. However, Daly revealed that the astronaut may have had to adjust the exposure on the camera to capture the surface of the moon. Daly claims that his team was able to find the stars in the sky after digitally changing the exposure on the picture.
Check out the video of Nvidia explaining the moon landing.
