Circularizing Orbits

[Chozo Nomad]

What exactly is the benefit of circularizing an orbit before landing? Don't you use the same amount of Dv regardless? Or is there something I'm missing? Sorry for the noobish question and thanks in advance for any responses!

Edited May 8, 2015 by Chozo Nomad

[Keras]

The benefit is being able to pick any landing site you wish. If you don`t care where you land landing directly costs slightly less dV. I don`t know how much it could be but I think the amount of dV you can save is so tiny that it`s not worth thinking about.

[Dkmdlb]

Give you some time to pick your exact landing spot, and also a circular orbit is a safe place to sit in case there's an issue - call it abort to orbit procedure.

[Superfluous J]

If you have a 10km periapsis at Mun, and you burn there to set up a descent and then descend and land, you use exactly the same dV as you would if you circularized at 10km, took a breath, decided where to land, and then burned down to descend.

You can save a tiny little bit of fuel by getting your periapsis even lower from way out and then just burning to land when you hit it, but that savings could easily be eaten up in any inefficiencies that come from not knowing where you're going to land and having to move to a nearby location.

[Chozo Nomad]

I see. I figured that might be the case. Thanks guys!