Artemis II Gives ‘Hello World’ Entirely New Meaning

This is admittedly far afield from accessibility, but definitely merits an exception.

Unless you live under a rock, you know NASA this week sent Artemis II to the moon, marking the federal agency’s first crewed mission there since Apollo 17 in 1972. Notably, Commander Reid Wiseman made headlines on Earth by taking this breathtaking shot of our planet from the spacecraft. Although there are iPhones on the mission, Cmdr. Wiseman’s picture was taken with a Nikon 5D, according to Morag Perkins on Bluesky.

Lance Ulanoff at TechRadar wrote a story about using AI to turn Cmdr. Wiseman’s “unforgettable photo” into wallpaper for his iPhone. He speculates over what tool was used to capture the image—which, again, turns out wasn’t an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

“I was so taken with the photo that I decided I wanted it on my iPhone 17 Pro Max—all the time. Turning it into my wallpaper and background was the obvious answer, but there were some hurdles,” Ulanoff wrote on Friday. “Usage is not a problem: Virtually all NASA images are in the public domain. The issue was the size and aspect ratio.”

He definitely wasn’t alone with his desire; as soon as I found a high-res version, I immediately made it my iPhone Air wallpaper—it is an absolute beauty. I love it.

Artemis II’s launch is somewhat fortuitously timed, as Season 5 of For All Mankind dropped this past week. I’m currently slowly making my way through a rewatch of the series, only a few episodes into the first season. At the rate I’m going, Season 5 will be complete once it ends come the end of next month. (I’m also really interested in the spin-off called Star City, which Apple announced in February premieres May 29.) On a technical note, I’ll say space-themed shows like For All Mankind and Star City are perfect conduits for playing to the strengths of OLED televisions. The perfect blacks and infinite contrast of my 77” LG C3 make the experience of For All Mankind, et al, that much more immersive, enjoyable—and, more crucially for me—accessible for my eyes.

Back to Ulanoff. This bit of copy resonated: “Now the image is with me all the time,” he said, “[when] I look at it, I think of what Artemis II Orion pilot, Astronaut Victor Glover, told the AP during an interview from inside the spacecraft: ‘Trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful, and from up here, you also look like one thing: homesapiens, as all of us, no matter where you’re from or what you look like, we’re all one people.’”