I finally learned how to do gravity assists!

[Wizard Kerbal]

I don't like NERVAs.
I tried to capture an asteroid with them, and it didn't go well. So, my first joolian mission used a rhino engine and a small fuel tank for it's job, circularizing, doing the transfer burn and capturing. But it had quite the TWR.

But of course, (I thought) it would be inefficient to capture at Jool with only my engine when it has 5 moons to do the job for me, specifically Tylo. It took me quite a while, but I set up the maneuver node in a, for lack of memory, stretched rubber-band shaped orbit. This would be a good orbit to deploy the 2 relays and the atmospheric probe.

I looked at the DeltaV requirement: 200.
I opened my phone to look at the DeltaV requirement for capturing with an engine burn: 160.
For reference, I still had 300 DeltaV in the tank.

With a sigh, I turned off the Xbox.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Wizard Kerbal

[Vanamonde]

NERVAs are the best engines for maneuvering large things like asteroids, silly. 

[Wizard Kerbal]

It didn't go well for my sanity.

[king of nowhere]

42 minutes ago, Wizard Kerbal said:

It didn't go well for my sanity.

don't worry.

losing your sanity is the first step on the road to becoming a pro at this game