How to enter into a Munnar transfer orbit?

[armeggedonCounselor]

More specifically, I want to swing around the Mun's leading "edge" so that I lose velocity as I come around, so that I don't have to burn as hard at periapsis in order to get into a Munnar orbit. I've tried both burning at about 100 degrees with maneuver nodes and manually watching for munrise, but both methods usually leave me either too far away from the Mun or entering into Munnar orbit from the Mun's trailing edge, so my velocity increases as I swing around. I managed to get a perfect transfer exactly once, and then burned up on reentry and lost all my science and a valuable member of my space program. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Edited December 30, 2013 by armeggedonCounselor

[Taki117]

The best option is to use maneuver nodes. Just slide it around until you get what you want.

[Vlk]

I don't think that it is possible to transfer to the mun so you use noticably less fuel than otherwise. You can swing either side, the trick is to kill your unneeded velocity when you are the closest, to take advantage of the Oberth effect. It also helps if you make a precise Hohmann transfer when approaching the mun so your kerbin periapsis is where the mun should "catch" you.

What i usually do:

1. make the transfer maneuver node (about 800 deltav i think)

2. start the burn at the right time (if its 6 min burn needed then i start at t-3min)

3. when the burn is almost done, i check the map if the plan goes well or not, and stop burning before rather than after the right point.

4. make a new maneuver node with 2-4 min eta, to make a rough correction (usually a small deltav, dont remember well, maybe 50)

5. make a new maneuver node with 5-10 min eta, and play around with it to make a precise arrival, like, 10km from the mun surface (about 0-2 deltav)

the sooner you make the corrections the better. if you try to make corrections later, then it will be a lot of deltav wasted

when i enter the mun's SOI, i immediately make sure that my path is good, if not, i correct it.

when i'm 10km from the mun's surface i kill my velocity to make a nice orbit

[armeggedonCounselor]

Alright. I made a couple of good Munnar orbits today, thanks to some of this advice. So, thanks. Now I just need to figure out how to maximize dV on my ascent stage, so that I don't have to burn some of my lander's fuel to get into Kerbin orbit....