Optimal burns to transfer between equatorial and inclined orbit?

[FancyMouse]

Suppose I start with equatorial orbit. I know ballistic transfer is efficient to change inclination, but this results in an orbit whose periapsis almost equals AN/DN. What if I want to go to an orbit with a non-trivial argument of periapsis? Extreme case is an eccentric orbit whose Ap/Pe are over poles. How to efficiently transfer to those orbits?

My scenario is I'm trying to tow an asteroid (periapsis at high latitude) to my equatorial space station. So I'm starting with such orbit and I want to transfer to equatorial orbit (i.e. reverse procedure of above). So things like directly launch to the desired orbit is out of the picture. In that case, what options do I have?

[sardia]

The standard option is to raise your AP so it's really high, then fix your inclination once you're high up/and super slow.

[Gooru]

THis would require the AP to be in the equatorial plane. If the PE is at high latitude the AP is also.

[Temstar]

If you burn normal/anti-normal at your AP then your AN/DN will move away from the PE (that is one of them will move away, the other one will move towards it). the aim is to get one of the node close to the AP. Then once you reach that node you perform your inclination change burn. Since the node is now closer to the AP the delta-V for the inclination change will be lower. Edited November 23, 2015 by Temstar

[Snark]

[quote name='Temstar']If you burn normal/anti-normal at your AP then your AN/DN will move away from the PE (that is one of them will move away, the other one will move towards it). the aim is to get one of the node close to the AP. Then once you reach that node you perform your inclination change burn. Since the node is now closer to the AP the delta-V for the inclination change will be lower.[/QUOTE]

That won't help if the argument of periapsis is especially uncooperative, as the OP has described. If you are in a highly eccentric polar orbit whose apoapsis is over the north pole, there exists no burn you can make at apoapsis that will raise the altitude of the AN or DN up high; burning normal/antinormal will just shift their longitudes around, which doesn't help if you want to end up equatorial.

However, if your apoapsis is way up high, you can do a relatively cheap burn at apoapsis to circularize up there. Then do another cheap burn at AN or DN to get your inclination to match the target orbit and to drop the periapsis back down again.

[LostOblivion]

[quote name='sardia']The standard option is to raise your AP so it's really high, then fix your inclination once you're high up/and super slow.[/QUOTE]

There's a tradeoff here, and for most near-circular orbits, the most delta-v efficient way to change inclination is to set a maneuver with static direction throughout the burn so that you reach your desired inclination.

[Superfluous J]

In this case, I'd burn at Ap to bring my orbit in contact with Mun's orbit, and then use Mun to gravity assist myself into an orbit that was both equatorial and with an Ap near Mun and a Pe in the atmosphere. Then (Likely with multiple passes, you want to be careful here) I'd aerobrake the Ap down to the target altitude. Finally, I'd burn the Pe up to the same altitude.

I can't describe exactly how this would occur because I've never done it, and each situation is different. I can tell you I'd use maneuver nodes and multiple patched conics levels, well more than the default 3.