Image enhancement techniques have been used to reveal life aboard Nasa’s stricken Apollo 13 spacecraft in unprecedented detail. Fifty years ago, the craft suffered an explosion that jeopardised the lives of the three astronauts aboard.

Unsurprisingly, given they were locked in a fight for survival, relatively few onboard images were taken. But imaging specialist Andy Saunders created sharp stills from low-quality 16mm film shot by the crew. One of the techniques used by Mr Saunders is known as “stacking”, in which many frames are assembled on top of each other to improve the image’s detail. Crewed by Nasa astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, Apollo 13 was supposed to be the third American mission to land on the lunar surface. During the journey to the Moon, an explosion in the service module allowed some of the spacecraft’s oxygen to leak out into space.(BBC)…[+]