How to return from polar location on Mun

[clevelas]

I landed successfully in the polar crater on Mun. I did a standard transfer, then burned "up" early on to get into polar orbit. Now I'm not sure how to get back. I'm fairly new to the game so still learning some of the mechanics. From a equatorial orbit, I just burn in the opposite direction of Muns orbit around Kerbin. How does that work from a polar orbit?

I have about 1200m/s of fuel remaining sitting in the crater, but my initial attempts to get home have left me far short of delta v.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[DisarmingBaton5]

From a equatorial orbit, I just burn in the opposite direction of Muns orbit around Kerbin.

Yup, that's it. You may have to do some waiting for Mun to be in the correct position, but it's the same idea. Note that your return trajectory will be inclined.

[Taki117]

Getting back from an inclined orbit is only slightly different than normal. Basically what you want to do is launch from your crater going any direction you want really. Almost as soon as you are off the ground perform your gravity turn (this will save some dV). Next thing you want to do is plop a maneuver node on your orbit and play with it a bit to see what happens, also try to get your Pe as low as possible (without changing Inclination). Execute the node. If your Pe is outside the atmosphere wait until you are outside the Man's SOI then burn retrograde. If your Pe is inside the atmosphere, sit back, relax, and don't forget to deploy your parachutes (and dump any unneeded stages just before reentry)

[Grover]

The simplest way to get your brave kerbal(s) home is to launch as normal, heading at 90 degrees, then when youre passing over the equator, raise your apomun right up to the top of the muns SOI, then fiddld with a manouver node to both set your inclination to zero, and circularise your orbit in one burn, then return home as nirmal (just from a much highrr munar orbit)

The reason this works is because you will have very little orvital velocity at your extremely high apoapsis, so changing your inclination takes very little fuel.

And you havent wasted any fuel by climbing to a higher orbit since youre going to eject anyway, youve just used your fuel early to make your actual ejection burn (the one that sends you home) very small from the high munar orbit

The same principle also applies to other planets, except you can also use moons to sling around and get some free dv

[Kasuha]

Even for landing on pole, the following approach applies. You need to arrange your orbit so it's in the same plane as the vector along which Mun (currently) moves around Kerbin, that'll allow you to exit its SOI retrograde.

[JiWint]

Just like Kasuha picture shows,to get back to kerbin while having polar orbit at mun,wait till moon gets in point there your orbit heading meets moon orbit line. (pretty hard to explain).

I hope you'll get em home!

[clevelas]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I ended being about to burn 'north' and use the approach suggested by Kasuha. Right above the pole, I made a prograde burn until I got a Kerbin orbit. I did one lap around, then did another burn to lower my perigee to land. I'm sure there are more efficient methods, but I did get back with about 100 m/s to spare.

[theBlind]

Even for landing on pole, the following approach applies. You need to arrange your orbit so it's in the same plane as the vector along which Mun (currently) moves around Kerbin, that'll allow you to exit its SOI retrograde.

I might miss something simple here, but why not burn towards heading 270 from the start? (and the usual of a bit up and then do your "gravity turn")

[Kasuha]

I might miss something simple here, but why not burn towards heading 270 from the start? (and the usual of a bit up and then do your "gravity turn")

Heading 270 will generally put you in orbit which does not intersect Mun's orbital trajectory. No part of such orbit is retrograde to the current Mun's motion.

Of course if you want to escape Mun's SOI and have fuel to spare, you can do it in any direction.

[clevelas]

I realize, I did do the opposite of Kasuha's suggestion. I went the opposite direction, coasted until I was over the pole, then did another long burn. Not sure if the other direction would be more efficient or what. I think it would just bring me back to Kerbin in opposite direction (coming from below instead of above?)

How do I mark a thread as answered?

[Specialist290]

For future reference: Go to edit your first post, then Go Advanced and change the tag in the menu.