Cant complete two sat contracts

[Biggen]

Trying to figure out what Im doing wrong. Both contracts require an antenna and power generation. One also needs a goo canister. Both are low Mun retrograde orbits only about 10km apart.

Im using a relay antenna for each one so they arent just useless trash orbiting once contract is completed. Thats counts for an antenna, right?

Neither has an engine. Im carrying them on my tourist flyby/orbit mun vessel so I can ferry tourists at the same time. I just get my ferry in the appropriate orbit, drop off via a zero force decoupler, and move to the next orbit.

However, this doesnt work. Everything is checked when I see the contract but it doesn't complete for some reason.

[Benjamin Kerman]

Does the contract say anything about being in a specific orbit? If so, your peri and apoapsis have to be roughly near the targeted orbit, which will look like a colorful orbit with nothing in it, and dots moving around it in the direction the probe has to move. 

26 minutes ago, Biggen said:

Neither has an engine.

To move them into these specified orbits (if they have specified orbits, as some contracts like launching space stations do not), it is near-impossible to put them into the correct orbit without much trial and error. I suggest just a very small fuel tank (i.e. Oscar B) and an even smaller engine (i.e. Ant or Spider). Just make sure that the probe has reaction wheels, or it will be impossible to orient the probe... 

(Side thought: you could get it spinning by adjusting the thrust if you have two radially-mounted engines, and just burn when it hits the right orientation, over and over again...)

31 minutes ago, Biggen said:

drop off via a zero force decoupler

Not sure if these exist. If you are talking about stack separators, each side has to have the same mass for it to be zero force, but you might have tweaked the decoupler force down to zero. 

Hope this helps. If I got anything wrong or had a brain-fart about something obvious, just let me know! (I am known to do that sometimes )

-Benjamin

[Biggen]

13 minutes ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Does the contract say anything about being in a specific orbit? If so, your peri and apoapsis have to be roughly near the targeted orbit, which will look like a colorful orbit with nothing in it, and dots moving around it in the direction the probe has to move. 

To move them into these specified orbits (if they have specified orbits, as some contracts like launching space stations do not), it is near-impossible to put them into the correct orbit without much trial and error. I suggest just a very small fuel tank (i.e. Oscar B) and an even smaller engine (i.e. Ant or Spider). Just make sure that the probe has reaction wheels, or it will be impossible to orient the probe... 

(Side thought: you could get it spinning by adjusting the thrust if you have two radially-mounted engines, and just burn when it hits the right orientation, over and over again...)

Not sure if these exist. If you are talking about stack separators, each side has to have the same mass for it to be zero force, but you might have tweaked the decoupler force down to zero. 

Hope this helps. If I got anything wrong or had a brain-fart about something obvious, just let me know! (I am known to do that sometimes )

-Benjamin

It does say (and show) their needed Ap and Pe so I make sure I setup the ferry into that orbit before decoupling. I have both decouplers set at 1% force so the orbit doesnt get messed up upon decoupling.

Usually, you dont have to be exact for the Ap and Pe. But ive made sure im within less than 500m of each to see if that was the problem.

I started a new career so i havent unlocked the Ant, Oscar B, Spider, etc... That was why I thought i could just strap them to the ferry since I had to go there anyway for a tourist contract. But something is amiss...

I may try it again and put on a regular antenna in addition to the relay antenna and see if that makes a difference. 

Edit:

Oh crap. I just thought of something. I bet I have the goo sat in the orbit for the non goo sat and the non goo sat is in the goo sat orbit.

Im not at my computer now to verify but I bet that is exactly the problem. Duh...

Edited February 23, 2017 by Biggen

[Benjamin Kerman]

29 minutes ago, Biggen said:

Oh crap. I just thought of something. I bet I have the goo sat in the orbit for the non goo sat and the non goo sat is in the goo sat orbit.

Yes, that could be a problem . If that doesn't work, the problem may well be the wrong antennae. Good luck!

[bewing]

Each of them also needs a probe core!

[Biggen]

So i figured out the issue. After i placed them in orbit (again!) the contract still wasnt completing even though it had green checks for "put it in this orbit" and "maintain for 10 seconds". Frustrated, I hit the [ ] keys to switch to each sat to make sure they were charged and all of a sudden the contact was completed.

So just dropping them in the orbit was not enough.  I needed to physically switch to each sat after placing them in the correct orbit. Good to know if i ever deliver sats with no engines to orbit again. 

[Spricigo]

15 hours ago, Biggen said:

So i figured out the issue. After i placed them in orbit (again!) the contract still wasnt completing even though it had green checks for "put it in this orbit" and "maintain for 10 seconds". Frustrated, I hit the [ ] keys to switch to each sat to make sure they were charged and all of a sudden the contact was completed.

So just dropping them in the orbit was not enough.  I needed to physically switch to each sat after placing them in the correct orbit. Good to know if i ever deliver sats with no engines to orbit again. 

So you had "put in orbit" and "maintain for 10s" but "be in control of the satellite" was missing. Its interesting to notice that maybe just waiting a bit more for decoupling would complete the contract.

[Biggen]

3 hours ago, Spricigo said:

So you had "put in orbit" and "maintain for 10s" but "be in control of the satellite" was missing. Its interesting to notice that maybe just waiting a bit more for decoupling would complete the contract.

I think the problem holding it up was that it required it to be an "unmanned sat". It wasnt unmanned until I finally decoupled. I had a pilot flying the ferry and carrying the sats.  At least, that is my guess.

[bewing]

That is correct.