A computer graphics card manufacturer, anxious to show off the capabilities of its latest offerings, has created a simulation it says helps debunk long-held conspiracy theories claiming the 1969 Apollo moon landing was faked.
Those who hold to that belief assert the landing of Apollo 11 on the surface of the moon had been faked in a studio for propaganda purposes and offer as proof supposed inconsistencies in photos of the event, including one of astronaut Buzz Aldrin climbing down the lunar lander's ladder.
Conspiracy theorists claim Aldrin, supposedly in the shadow of the lander, is too well lit.
That's proof, they say, of the presence of an artificial light source other than what could have been provided by the sun.
Engineers at graphics card creator Nvidia, to showcase the power of its line of cards, have produced a simulation of the famous photograph they say accurately reproduces the reflective properties of the lander, the astronaut's suits and the lunar surface.
"You can explain it," says Mark Daly, senior director of content development at Nvidia, "and say light bounces around even on the moon... or you can show it. We decided to take the approach to show it, but it turns out that it's not that easy -- there isn't a lot of light on [Aldrin]."
The Nvidia team, using the dynamic lighting capabilities of its graphics cards' technology, was able to simulate reflections off every surface of the scene in real time. They key finding, they said, was that reflections off the space suit worn by Neil Armstrong, who was photographing Aldrin, was providing sufficient additional illumination to light Aldrin's suit as seen in the original photo.
The material of the exterior of the Apollo 11 astronauts' suits was 85 percent reflective, which mean Armstrong's suit could have contributed sufficient light as reflections to illuminate Aldrin coming down the ladder, the engineers said.
They used their graphics technology to simulate a single light source, the sun, and make it correctly reflect off of every material in the scene, they said.
A side-by-side comparison of the actual photo and the recreation created using its GeForce GRX 970 and 980 cards shows the lighting in the photo is possible with just the sun as the only light source, Nvidia says.
Ironically, the claim of the moon landing deniers that another light source would have been necessary to create the Aldrin photo is in fact true, Daly says; just not in the way they claim.
"As it turns out, yes! They're right -- there was a light there, it was the sun reflecting off of Neil Armstrong's suit," he says. "I really didn't believe it would contribute that much."
