Trying to land on Laythe, but orbiting round Jool in wrong direction. Help!

[Biff Space]

My rescue mission to Laythe has run into a problem - I've ended up orbiting Jool clockwise, where Laythe is orbiting Jool anticlockwise.

I have quite a lot of dV (~9000) but it hasn't been enough - I've fiddled with manoever nodes to see what happens if I intercept Laythe from my current orbit, and what happens is I smash into Jool.

Any clever ideas for what to do?

If it makes any difference, my current (stable, circular, non-inclined) orbit is just outside Vall's. Would be perfect if I was going the other way round.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Biff Space

[StuntMax]

...a gravity assist around Tylo to reverse your orbit? I dunno, just brainstorming.

[Black_Tomcat]

To reverse your orbit you can either raise your apoapsis and then reverse it up there or, what I would do, aerobrake at Laythe.

[Red Iron Crown]

I would just go for the encounter and use aerobraking to kill off the excess velocity, assuming you're not using Deadly Reentry.

[Kasuha]

I did this once as I was trying direct Laythe intercept on arrival to Jool system and Laythe just happened to be retrograde so I was aerobraking from 8 km/s. Nothing special, make sure your periapsis is low enough so you don't slip out, but still in the atmosphere. I think 8-10 km is fine.

If you use deadly reentry, it should be possible to reverse your orbit using Tylo/Laythe slingshots.

[Mesklin]

Aerobrake about Laythe is the best solution if need land to Laythe surface near stranged kerbanauts

[FleetAdmiralJ]

I'm with some of the other posters here: if you're going to LAND on Laythe, presuming you don't have deadly re-entry or have a good heat shield, I would just go ahead and aerobrake at Laythe

[Biff Space]

Thanks, everyone.

Aerobraking worked fine (give or take a quicksave or two) and I've got into a stable orbit now. I wasn't using deadly re-entry, so no problem there - I'm finding it hard enough without the extra realism mods at the moment.

Cheers!

[Dkmdlb]

See if you can get a Laythe intercept in your current orbit (which shouldn't be too difficult, the Jool system is cramped), and let it ride. Prepare for a 8-10km/s re-entry.