Lighting Simulation Offers More Proof of Moon Landing

by Guest Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:45 am

Many conspiracy theorists who believe the Apollo moon landings were an elaborate ruse point to an iconic photograph of Buzz Aldrin that they claim could only have been taken using an artificial light source. Turns out they were right, but, as a new digital reconstruction of the Apollo 11 landing site by computer graphics chipmaker Nvidia proves, that artificial light source was not from a movie studio soundstage but Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit.

Every epic moment in modern history inevitably spawns a tangled web of conspiracy theories, and the Apollo moon landings are no exception. From the moment astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969, some believed it was all an elaborate ruse staged by NASA on a Hollywood soundstage in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (Of course, a different conspiracy camp believes man first landed on the moon a quarter-century before the Apollo astronauts when the Nazis established a top-secret lunar base where Adolf Hitler lived out his final years.)

Even the photographic evidence of the Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon has been seized by moon landing conspiracy theorists as proof of the hoax. In particular, they point to an iconic color photograph of Aldrin descending the ladder of the lunar module Eagle. Since the sun was hidden behind the other side of the spacecraft, conspiracy theorists argue that Aldrin appears too brightly illuminated in the shadows for the picture to be real and that he could only have been so clearly photographed with the aid of artificial studio spotlights.

Now, computer graphics chipmaker Nvidia has employed its cutting-edge technology normally used to create realistic lighting in video games and movies to debunk one of the most persistent conspiracy theories in American history. “We wanted to take on the challenge of showing the single light source of the sun was actually able to light Buzz Aldrin even though he’s in the shadows,” Mark Daly, senior director of content development at Nvidia, said in a company video. Using Maxwell, the company’s new high-end graphics processing unit architecture that simulates the real-time properties of light, Nvidia engineers created a three-dimensional virtual lighting model of the Apollo 11 landing site.

To build its digital reconstruction, the project team studied satellite imagery of the Apollo 11 landing site as well as photographs and videos from the mission. They painstakingly researched and measured the reflective properties of a range of materials from moon dust to the Eagle’s rivets to the fabric of the spacesuits.

http://www.history.com/news/lighting-simulation-offers-more-proof-of-moon-landing

by Ben Reilly Sun Sep 28, 2014 2:49 am

Ah, if only evidence were enough to debunk conspiracy theories! But you know, "they" can fabricate all the evidence they want, some of us will always be able to see the truth ... that it's Obama's fault ::rfth::