this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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I still cannot comprehend how the math and physics work. How can you calculate the trajectory of an object flying several times the speed of sound, millions of kilometers, with the duration on several weeks while being on a planet that moves even faster than that object?
EDIT: The Earth is rotating as well lol
The real answer is you can't, every time the astronauts take a piss it's throwing everything off. But they do know where San Diego is going to be, and they want to land the capsule off the coast of San Diego, so they keep making adjustments throughout the flight so they stay on course to hit the water at 8:07:27 because that's when San Diego is going to be there.
Because all of it is expected and known. It would actually be a lot harder to calculate if it were something taking place just here on earth. You have to factor in stuff like wind and turbulence which throws calculations off. But in space? Little to no unexpected variables. It's Newton's first law; an object in motion stays in motion.
We know the position of the moon and how it will move.
We know the position of the earth and how it will move.
We know the position of the spacecraft and how it will move.
From there, it's just math.
the three body problem though.
Artemis II did not contribute sufficient gravitational forces to be relevant.
That's only because yo mama wasn't on board
Oh snap!
The limit that the 3 body problem presents is that there is no exact solution, and inexact solutions will eventually desynchronize so much as to become worthless for predictions. But the key word is 'eventually' - if your initial measurements are good, there could be years (and in the case of the planets of the solar system, millions of years) worth of useful predictions.
Ah you see, in space there is no sound, much simpler to calculate without it!
It took us a few thousand years to figure it out. No biggie.