the strict order of exploration contracts

[Laie]

I'm just doing Jool-5.

The exploration contracts for the joolian moons are apparently ordered such that one should start at the outermost moon and work his way in -- which is not how I'm going to do it. In a way, it's not important: I need neither money nor prestige. So it annoys me much more than it should... but annoying it is.

Please make it so that all the moons come up at once when the player gets to Jool. I'm aware that this could be exploited by sending an unmanned probe, then cashing in on the advance payments for five exploration contracts; but OTOH, all the advance payments taken together may be just the kind of cash one needs to actually send a manned mission.

(Or just reorder them. Aerobraking at Jool, then working your way outward, is the better approach.)

[technicalfool]

(Or just reorder them. Aerobraking at Jool, then working your way outward, is the better approach.)

I would have thought that aerobraking to an apoapsis of around Pol or Bop would be the most fuel-efficient thing to do, especially with regards the inner moons and their size/atmosphere. After that, extra orbit reductions can be done with additional free or nearly-free dV from successive aerobraking.

That said, this is a sandboxy game. Do whatever and have fun with it.

[Red Iron Crown]

I would have thought that aerobraking to an apoapsis of around Pol or Bop would be the most fuel-efficient thing to do, especially with regards the inner moons and their size/atmosphere. After that, extra orbit reductions can be done with additional free or nearly-free dV from successive aerobraking.

For a Jool 5 mission it is definitely better to hit Laythe and Tylo early as it lets you get rid of the heavier landing components sooner so you don't need to cart their mass around.

You're basically only going to be able to use Jool for aerobraking on your initial entry to the system; once in orbit around one of the moons it is cheaper to just do a hohmann transfer to the others (though gravity assists are useful and relatively easy to arrange).