Do you find the Jool system hard to navigate?

[cantab]

Remember that Laythe, Vall, and Tylo are in a Laplace resonance. For each time Tylo makes one orbit, Vall makes two and Laythe makes four. This can limit your ability to gain or avoid flybys of the moons.

[Vahal]

I'd agree with Vahal that scanning Jool is pretty pointless. There are no biomes, and there's no surface to record altimetry data about. That said, you may be able to get the 'Analyse Data' science from there; not sure.

Also, remember that the SAR scanner for hi-resolution altimetry and the multispectral scanner for biomes and anomalies have different altitude requirements, so if you want both you may need to plan two satellites per body.

And if you have a ressource survey antenna there is a third altitude... When I launched my Jool Satellite network I started with one per moon, then I realized that It can't be so two per moon... and no. 3 per moon. I finished with a real satellite bus so instead sending one big probe ship delivering satellite, I sent five since it would finally be simplier and I will not finish with a monstruous 600+ parts spacecraft melting my computer memory.

About RTG lifespan, it's nice but 7 years... Depending the travel time, that can be quite short for the satellite service life.

To change your inclination you have to be the farest you can inside the SOI, that will be the cheaper, but you should drop your Jool satellite and let the carrier in equatorialish orbit to jump easily to the moons.

[smjjames]

I'd agree with Vahal that scanning Jool is pretty pointless. There are no biomes, and there's no surface to record altimetry data about. That said, you may be able to get the 'Analyse Data' science from there; not sure.

Also, remember that the SAR scanner for hi-resolution altimetry and the multispectral scanner for biomes and anomalies have different altitude requirements, so if you want both you may need to plan two satellites per body.

Yeah, I tried it myself, the scanners don't work and won't give analyze data science either. Though the spectral imager (shell shaped instrument) will still give you science for low and high orbit imaging. I've also tried scanning for resources, but they're pretty much uniform on Jool, maybe more uniform than karbonite on Kerbin.

Don't forget to pack stuff to grab the science from Jools atmosphere while you aerobrake, unless it's not a return mission.

As for the origional question and the pinballing, I actually try to use the pinballing to my advantage and just swing around gravitationally.

Haven't had any issues with entering or leaving Jool either. When entering, you're going so fast that an encounter with any of the moons (mainly Laythe and Tylo. Pol and Vall are tiny and Pol has a highly angled orbit) is very slim.

[MarvinKitFox]

Is it just me or is the area around Jool a pain to navigate for everyone? ... until I could find one that didn't get screwed up by one of Jool's moons. That just felt really excessive to me.?

Complaining about the presence of Jool's moons when navigating to/in/from Jool is like complaining about the multitude of highway choices and on/off ramps when driving between distant cities.

Would you really prefer a single lane road with no on/offramps to get from NewYork to LA?

The moons are there to **HELP** you, not to hinder you!