Early this morning we reported that the iPhone 17 Pro was carried in the Artemis II Mission as the first smartphone to orbit the moon. In addition to Apple's latest phone, several other photography and technology products were brought by the crew to record the historic mission, the first time humans returned to the moon since 1972.
The official list shared by NASA shows that in addition to the iPhone 17 Pro, the crew will use a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet computer, two Nikon D5 cameras, and several GoPro action cameras. All of the equipment carried is quite old (the Nikon D5 was launched in 2016) because the equipment list is approved in 2023 after undergoing the rigorous NASA space program accreditation process.
The Surface Pro is used to access office applications, the PFC, PMC system, store DSLR imagery, review captured images and recorded videos, and control the cameras in the Integrity capsule cabin.
In addition, 10 256GB memory cards were also brought for recording purposes at 4K resolution. For the live streaming that will be done, NASA has determined that the Nikon D5 camera needs to be reduced to 1080p resolution only to save bandwidth usage. Each camera also comes with two lens options of 14-24mm and 80-400mm.
Finally, the GoPro camera is only used for documentary video recording published by National Geographic and Disney+ which will be published later.
The Integrity space capsule has begun its journey to the moon which will take 4 days and is expected to land back on Earth on April 11.
