Most efficient way to rendezvous with a Munar station in a polar orbit?

[metroidman63]

What's the best way to set this up before entering the Mun's SOI?

[Dwight_js]

I haven't done the math, but generally speaking, the further you are from the body when you make your maneuver, the less delta v you'll need - so setting things up early will be more efficient.

I've had some pretty good success getting into near-polar orbits by setting up a transfer burn that lets me come in below or above the Mun. The trick is that the Mun is a moving target, and the predicted orbit that the transfer nodes show are relative to Kerbin. So when you are setting up your nodes, if your predicted path shows you moving directly north-south around the far side of the Mun, the Mun's motion will mean that you will actually get an orbit with roughly a 45 degree inclination. You have to come in at a bit of an angle relative to the Mun to get a true polar orbit. To rendezvous with a station, you'll also have to time your transfer burn so that you reach the Mun when the station's orbit is aligned with your approach path (this is tuning out to be a fascinating challenge!).

I'll give it a try later and post some pics to illustrate what I'm talking about above.

[BlackBicycle]

Well, halfway on your transfer trajectory set up a node and tweak it so that you end up in a polar orbit over Mun. Set up a node and play around with the handles until you achieve a gravitational capture that will twist you reasonably towards polar. Halfway through transfer is the most energy-efficient way to do it (unless you opt for a polar kerbin start. Then you can transfer polar to polar (it can take up to a munar month to wait for an economical transfer though, for reasons that should be clear).

[Horn Brain]

When you set up your encounter, put your periapsis over the north or south pole of the Mun (as close as you can get). Don't worry about lining up with the target orbit yet, just make sure your periapsis is close to the pole. When you do your capture burn, only burn until you're just barely captured; your apoapsis should be at the edge of the Mun's SoI above the other pole, and your AN or DN should be up there too. You will be moving only a few m/s up there, so it will be easy to adjust your inclination to match the target. Then do a maneuver at periapsis to lower your apoapsis and proceed to rendezvous as normal.

[thiosk]

theres some good advice here, but really it comes down to experience. When you gain an intrinsic understanding of how different burns effect various orbits, it becomes second nature to tune and adjust the nodes. Before having that experience, its god damned voodoo.

[Smidge204]

If you're really pro, you can time your launch and burn slightly north or south of due east to put yourself into a purposefully inclined orbit around Kerbin, such that when you continue to raise your orbit to encounter Mun you will be above/below it and be able to get captured into a nearly polar orbit.

Edit: Math tells me you'd be looking for an angle of about 11 degrees off of due east for that stunt.

=Smidge=

Edited January 7, 2014 by Smidge204