Hilarious the the intellectual forum downvoted you for being absolutely right.

Artemis II never escaped Earth’s pull.

That video that NASA put out where the craft did a sling shop around the moon is extremely deceptive. The pull of the moon had very little effect.

If they had missed, they would have eventually crashed back to earth in the worst case, and best case just re-adjusted and returned a little bummed.

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pdonis 14 hours ago | parent [-]

> The pull of the moon had very little effect.

No, it had a very significant effect: it's what made possible the free return trajectory while observing the far side of the moon.

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SV_BubbleTime 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Ok, but no not really. This is incorrect, the “free return” would have happened if they launched entirely in the wrong direction.

Like I said, the gif you saw makes it look that way.

Here is a link that explains it very well. https://youtu.be/MF8IbYbVIA0?t=269

I’ll agree, it seems crazy that it left earth, made it to the moon, and never really left earth orbit at all. That the furthest we’ve been away is still destined to return on its own.

	▲	pdonis 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> the gif you saw makes it look that way. Makes it look what way? Watch the NASA video carefully. It's clear that, even before the "loop" begins, Artemis is slowed down and is soon going to reverse direction relative to Earth. Which of course it would anyway, as you say--because, as the video you linked to points out, it doesn't have Earth escape velocity. The TLI burn gave it just enough velocity to reach the Moon's orbit with a little extra speed left over to get it about 4000 miles further. But what would not happen without the Moon there is the "backwards" part of the loop--the part that took Artemis around the far side of the Moon. The Moon's gravity is what did that. In the Moon-centered frame in the video, yes, it looks like just a slight deflection--because that frame is moving with the Moon, whereas Artemis was moving backwards--in the opposite direction from the Moon in the Earth-centered frame. Without the Moon there, Artemis would never have moved backwards, relative to the Moon's orbit, at all. Its trajectory in the Earth centered frame would have been a simple ellipse, with a maximum altitude from Earth a little higher than what it actually achieved (since the Moon's gravity did pull it back a little bit).
	▲	pdonis 12 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> This is incorrect No, it's not. You aren't responding to what I actually said. See below. > the “free return” would have happened if they launched entirely in the wrong direction. But it would not have been a free return that let them see the far side of the moon, which is what I said. The Moon's gravity is what made that possible. And that was very significant.