Redirecting the biggest rocks?

[Wampa842]

Mun was a bro and helped me capture a class E asteroid, but it's in a highly eccentric and inclined (about 160°) orbit. I've sent up two NERVA-powered tugs (with NovaPunch's 2.5m NERVA), but I've only made minor changes to the orbit.

I need about 2 km/s of ÃŽâ€v only to change its inclination, and... a lot of ÃŽâ€v to put it into a circular orbit.

Structural integrity is also a problem. Even with KJR and a lot of KAS struts, the tug wobbles too much to be controlled.

I've been thinking about using three radial engines, each attached with a pair of claws, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble.

What tug configuration do you recommend for those big rocks?

[Random Tank]

Pull the roid, rather than push it; its much more stable. Also, bringing some claw probes that you can put on the roid that have Reaction wheels or RCS is a good idea, it makes it much easier to turn the big ones.

Also, sometimes having SAS on doesn't help; try to get the rocket lined up with the centre of the roids mass as close as you can, then try pulling it with SAS off, it may stop shake

[bsalis]

You can pull - have not done that myself.

For me I just de-claw then re-claw in the place i need to push. Then I used an unlocked pivot to steer it.

As for inclination changes... probably want to try and push it into a highly eccentric orbit. Fix inclination, then aerorake back to circularise.

[Vector]

Practice practice practice gravity assists. Eventually they will feel intuitive. Much less costly to change your apoapsis/periapsis to cross the Mun's orbit, then wait for an intercept and use a sling-shot to change your inclination. I got a class D from highly inclined into nearly equatorial orbit using only 50 m/s or so delta-V.