this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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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.