How to Reach Polar Orbit Around Kerbin

[Sharpy]

It's not *exactly* Mun polar, but it's "near". Just a hint how to place your initial trajectory before you start adjusting the node for proper polar escape - if you set your initial flyby as polar, you'll come out with a highly inclined orbit. Fine-tune the encounter node (radial/antiradial) to make the escape exactly polar.

You can always aerobrake back to the right apoapsis (or a little less than that, then burn anti-radial between the two, to bring apoapsis lower, periapsis higher in one burn) so don't worry too much about return delta-V.

If you still managed to fumble your Mun escape, you can still burn normal/antinormal at the distant ascending/descending node (or even the Apoapsis even if it's way out there away from the equatorial plane) - it will be much cheaper than doing so in LKO.

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Without Moon, a change of inclination up to 40 degrees is best done directly. Between 40 and 60 degrees it should be done through raising the apoapsis. Above 60 degrees it should be performed beyond the SOI of the body you're changing inclination for.

Luckily, with moons you can use their gravity to change inclination of your orbit any way you want, at cost of getting a flyby + return (minus airbraking).

[_stilgar_]

Is there any particular place in the orbit to burn that is most efficient?

Edit: also, when I tried to place a maneuver node to do that, it changed the apoaps and periaps significantly, so much so that the scanner wouldn't work. How would I counter this?

Rotating your orbit to different inclination is most efficient at apoapsis, if your orbit is highly elliptic. Your speed at AP is probably just 50 m/s or something like that, so you can even stop your craft and start moving in the same orbit in opposite direction