Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong became the first man to ever set foot on the moon. Previously thought to be impossible, the Apollo 11 spaceflight defied the odds and fanned a spark of hope into a flame of progress.
Years later, we can admire old photos and blurry videos, using only our imagination to sharpen the blurred images. But now, thanks to artificial intelligence (and director David Sky Brody), we can relive that momentous occasion.
In celebration of the Apollo 11 voyage and it’s 50th anniversary, Brody and his team used artificial intelligence software to revive the original photos and videos of the first moon landing. Although high-resolution image technology wasn’t available until the 21st century, AI has made it possible for us to catch a 4K, high-resolution glimpse of the moon landing in Apollo’s New Moon.
In an interview with MagellanTV, Brody said, “Artificial Intelligence-assisted software to dramatically increase pixel-density has arrived just in time for this historically significant documentary… It was relatively easy, though computer-intensive, to bring these sources into the 4K domain.”
To accomplish this task, the team first needed to recover transfers of the 16mm camera film taken by the original astronauts throughout the expedition. They then spent hours combing through the film on computers and relying on the AI software to improve the image quality by filling in pixels.
Brody says it’s thanks to the digital revolution that this speedy process is possible. “The rise of the software coding arts that drive powerful microelectronics has recently made it possible for a new generation of scientists to extract fresh discoveries from the old Apollo samples.”
Brody took a scientific approach to the documentary as he believes it truly shows the influence of the Apollo 11 mission. Because of it, we’ve realized there’s more to our universe than just us and how much we are capable of as humans. It helped spark the digital revolution, encouraging us to take an interest in technology and find ways we can use it to progress in science. We now understand our potential and where we can go in the future.
See Apollo’s New Moon in 4k here.
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