[IronJack]

I'm sure the mission planners at NASA (in between muslime outreach efforts) have the brains to calculate the retrograde burn necessary to insert the craft into orbit. The gravitational pull of the planet alone might be enough to capture a passing object if it was on the right trajectory and moving at the right speed.

Point is, this has probably occurred to them too.

[alpo]

They better not mix meters and feet, as in a previous probe attempt, or it will make quite a splash.

[Freeport]

“...The gravitational pull of the planet alone might be enough to capture...”

Nope. The velocity involved is a measurable percentage of the speed of light.

Chemical engines + aero braking are not getting you enough deltaV reduction without the object burning up in, bouncing off of, or being crushed like a bug on a windshield by the atmosphere.