Did NASA’s Artemis II mission really do lunar science or go to the Moon for all humanity?

Our Moon and Earth captured by the Artemis II Orion spacecraft using a camera at the tip of one of its solar panels. Image: NASAThere’s an unsaid rule in the space industry: the more popular a mission or a program, the more inaccurate its broader coverage and public discussions, especially by people who aren’t thinking about space everyday. NASA’s Artemis II mission and its four astronauts flying around the Moon naturally had its share of whimsical coverage and social media fluff too. But what stands out here is that NASA itself has unfortunately been a source of misinformation. The US government’s revered space agency has touted the mission to have done substantial lunar science during the flyby, and the US government at large has framed the mission as one going “for all humanity”.Before you get your pitchforks out, especially if you aren’t a regular reader, kindly consider that I’m not an outsider to the space industry who is arguing in bad faith with no understanding of spaceflight…