I turned the Artemis II mission's most stunning Earth photo into an iPhone wallpaper but I needed a little help from AI

Date:
Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:44:53 +0000

Description:
Commander Reid Wiseman's unforgettable image of Earth is now part of my
iPhone 17 Pro Max

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The Artemis II crew has just completed one of the most daring portions of their moon mission: a translunar burn to finally jettison the Orion spacecraft from the Earth's gravitational pull and put it on a trajectory to fly around the far side of the moon.

It was a risky maneuver and prompted some deep reflection, perhaps no better embodied than in the stunning image of Earth captured by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman. Shared by NASA on Friday , the image shows the Earth in full with a pair of auroras created as our globe eclipses the sun. Article continues below You may like Smartphones in space the Artemis
II crew are throwing an iPhone around in zero gravity Get ready for out of this world selfies - NASA says astronauts can now take their own phones with them to space Artemis II will use laser beam tech to send '4K video from the Moon' No one knows at this moment how Wiseman captured the image, whether it was done with a NASA-issued digital camera or one of the s martphones the
crew was allowed to bring along for the Artemis II mission. Perhaps, though, that doesn't matter. It's the kind of photo that's instantly iconic. Some might compare it to the Earthrise photo taken during Apollo 8's 1968 lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders. The new image certainly stirs some emotions. 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. Usage is not a problem: Virtually all NASA images are in the public domain. The issue was the size
and aspect ratio. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. As shot by Wideman, the image is 5568x3712 pixels, which, by the way, does not
exactly match the iPhone's 24MP resolution in 16x9, 4:3, or 1:1. The iPhone
17 Pro Max's optical wallpaper image size is 1320x2868. You can see the problem. Making the Artemis II Earth photo into iPhone wallpaper Here are my steps: Download the image off NASA's website Open it in Adobe Photoshop 2026 Create a new 1320x2868 image in Photoshop Select the entire NASA image and copy it Paste into the new image Use Command/T to resize the image until the Earth fits in the window Drag it to center it vertically and horizontally in the frame Image 1 of 5 (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) At this point, you'll see that the Earth looks great there, but it also has two white spaces at the top and bottom. Here's where AI comes in. What to read next How to use AI to make your photos look instantly better Four months with the iPhone 17 Pro has changed the way I use my phone for better or worse iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 3GS perfectly illustrates 16 years of smartphone photography progress

I used the magic wand to select both spaces. That automatically triggers
Adobe Firefly, Adobe's built-in AI tool, which can be useful for generative fills.

I didn't want AI to touch the original image, but I wanted a complete wallpaper. In my prompt, I told Firelfy to add space and stars that matched the look of the rest of the photo and to make the transition between what it added and the original "seamless.'

The process took less than a minute, and then I had my complete image .

Next, I exported it as 100% quality JPG and saved it to my iCloud drive.
After that, I opened the drive on my iPhone, selected the image, and downloaded it to Photos. The next step was the easiest, choosing the photo
and setting it as my wallpaper. I had to pinch the image to make sure it filled the whole Earth on the screen.

Now the image is with me all the time, and 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." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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