Most efficient way to Pol land & Return?

[Mr. Peabody]

I feel like I ask questions here far too often, but then that's what this section is for. Basically I'm wondering what is the most efficient way to conduct a land and return mission to Pol. I'm in career mode so I'll likely try to scrape it as close as possible. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Foxster]

Depends how much messing around you want to do. I'm sure there are gravity assists from the inner planets that will help but that's too fussy for me. 

I'd go for a good transfer (there are mod tools to help plan that) and a gravity brake from one of Jool's inner moons to save a huge amount of dV in establishing a Jool orbit. 

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Agreed. Use Tylo for the free capture (Laythe works as well, but since you're going to Pol, probably better to stay further out). Once you see that you have a projected orbit, you have all the time in the world (about a year and a half) to mess around with maneuver nodes to line up the best Pol encounter you can. Either burning in the SOI of Jool or Tylo itself should get the job done for pretty cheap. And Pol's gravity is so low, the land and return to Kerbin can be done with a very small lander. Even a larger one is pretty straight forward if you wanna bring along some extra Kerbals to gain experience. And since this is a career game, it wouldn't hurt to send a detachable probe with a survey scanner to scan Pol for ore. It's a pretty good insurance move for future exploration. Pol is a great place to set up mining operations to refuel Jool missions.

[Spricigo]

 

If you want to try something a bit more complex, Eve can give a reasonable boost without increasing the flight time that much.

In any case, for most game purposes, a direct transfer to Jool is simpler and effective.