Satellite in designated orbit

[wardogjohn]

I'm a rather new player and I accepted a mission to put a satellite into a designated orbit around the Mun. So I built the sat and put it into orbit and all mission critical circumstances were fulfilled except the: Reach the designated equatorial orbit around the Mun with reasonable deviation. The Periapsis is supposed to be 241,665m and the sat. is at 241,653m, and the Apoapsis is supposed to be 252,929m and my sats is 252,958. In my book that is a reasonable deviation. Especially since in all the videos I watched on youtube they usualy had far greater deviations. The orbit is pretty much spot on with only a few dozen meters difference, yet it won't let me accomplish the mission. Is that a bug? or is there something I'm doing wrong?

[Starhawk]

Hello wardogjohn and welcome to the forum!

In almost every one of these cases, the satellite has been put into orbit moving in exactly the wrong direction.

If you look at the target orbit in map view, you should be able to see an animation within the orbit line moving around to show you which way the satellite must move in the orbit.

Also, the markers which indicate inclination when viewed from the satellite in question should be very near to zero.  If they are near to 180 then you are going the wrong way.

Hope this helps.

Happy landings!

[DD_bwest]

yup starhawk is on the money. its almost always that the satelite is going the wrong way.  its an easy mistake to make even for the more experienced player.  ill occasionally not be paying attention and launch the wrong way only to realize once i go to the map to make my circulization burn.

[Chiron0224]

Freaking this.  I love satellite contracts because they are how I print money but if I had some funds for every time I put a satellite in the wrong direction I wouldn't have to do so many contracts.

[wardogjohn]

So out of curiosity, Do you flip the orbit by 180 degrees or do you revert?

[Starhawk]

9 hours ago, wardogjohn said:

So out of curiosity, Do you flip the orbit by 180 degrees or do you revert?

The sheer amount of dV required to flip the orbit (essentially kill all your velocity, stop, and get going just as fast in the opposite direction) is enormous.  Usually prohibitive for a small satellite.

So, the answer is flip the orbit if you have enough fuel and don't mind burning it.  Otherwise revert.

Happy landings!

[bewing]

16 hours ago, wardogjohn said:

So out of curiosity, Do you flip the orbit by 180 degrees or do you revert?

A large number of players take the advice that "you did all the work necessary to get the orbit so very close -- you deserve the credit, but don't do it again." And then go into the Debug Menu, under Contracts, and mark that contract "Complete" via cheating.

But if the orbit is high enough, reversing it doesn't take all that much dV. It's just twice as much as your orbital velocity. Typically around 1000m/s for many satellite orbits. I do multiple satellite contracts per launch -- and that often requires stopping out in midspace, picking a new direction, and thrusting full blast to create a brand new orbit.

 

Edited November 11, 2016 by bewing