How to do a gravity assist?

[Butterbean]

I consider myself a somewhat an average pilot but how the hell do you guys do gravity assists?

[blasty]

basically you pass close to a moon (or planet), and then let the gravity of that moon change the course of your ship. if you pass "behind" you will speed up and if you pass "in-front" you will slow down, if you pass over the poles it will change your orbit inclination. the closer you pass by the moon (and the stronger the moon's gravity) the stronger the affect will be.

you can play around with a maneuver node to see what will happen, but you may have to increase the "conic patch limit" in your general game settings to see more orbit lines.

as always, Scott Manley has an outstanding video explaining things :) https://youtu.be/16jr7WWGSxo

[Butterbean]

Thanks man