My software can project any scanned photo onto the rendering background, which suffices for most space shots. This is an unsophisticated method, with a couple of disadvantages: the background does not cast either light or reflections onto the rendered object. For non-shiny objects, this is okay, and I can fake reflected light by creating extra lights in the scene (the lights themselves are, of course, invisible). I can make up for lack of radiosity the same way.

I can create a ground plane, and put a texture on it that does cast reflections. This feature is included, of course, due to the fact that Accurender was originally an architectural program.