Artemis II, Apollo, and the Physics of Going Back to the Moon

Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a full-spectrum moonshot: why Artemis II matters, how the mission actually works (SLS, Orion, free-return trajectories, translunar injection), and a first-principles teardown of the most common Apollo “hoax” claims—Van Allen belts, waving flags, shadows, and “why aren’t there stars?” We also run a quick “Rundown” of wild science headlines (ancient cave art, elevation-dependent warming, dogs and vocabulary, and peptide bonds in deep space), before coming back to the core question: what it takes to send humans safely around the Moon—again.

Summary

• Artemis II mission profile — what “free return” means, why TLI timing matters, and what Orion is doing in high Earth orbit before the Moon.

• SLS vs Saturn V — the engineering + risk trade-offs behind modern human-rated heavy lift.

• Apollo myths, explained — radiation belts, camera exposure physics, and why the “flag” and “shadows” arguments don’t survive basic mechanics and optics.

• Proof Apollo happened — retroreflectors, orbital imagery, and the reality that the world was watching.