Keostationary orbital SAT help - 0.90

[Bluebird1]

Hieveryone, was hoping someone could offer some help or adviceregarding a contract mission placing a Keostationary orbitalsatellite at around 7m km's appoapse and periapse.

Ittook me about 4 hours to place the satellite in the orbit specifiedby the contract, but the contract will not complete. On looking atthe orbit of the satellite, it appears that it is exactly followingthe path, however it seems to run parallel to it by approx 20,000meters.

Asit took so long to get it into position I gave up and left the satwhere it was, however to my simple mind it would require a 90 degreeburn towards the path the contract has put in the tracking map. thean exact opposite burn to correct the alignment at the other end ofthe orbital path.

Thishas been made more complicated due to the Keostationary aspect inthat the sat does not move, it just sits more or less in the samespot.

Cansomeone come up with a solution to this, as I have only recentlybought the game and my space navigation and orbital mechanics arebasic at best.

[Yemo]

Is your sat built right? Does it have solar panels?

[Anquietas314]

The game doesn't actually care if the satellite really is keostationary, only if it's close enough to the orbit. The problem sounds like your inclination is just too far out of alignment. To fix that, wait until you're at your Ascending Node (AN) or Descending Node (DN) relative to the orbit - these are shown on the target orbit - and then burn (for a prograde orbit) south or north respectively until the orbits are aligned. The numbers on the nodes should read a value close to 0 and possibly start jumping all over the orbit when you're done. If the number reads 180, you're going in completely the wrong direction

Edited December 23, 2014 by armagheddonsgw

[Bluebird1]

Yeah that was it, node was at 180. Didn't think it would practically matter what way it orbits and I don't have the delta v to burn 1800 m/s. Noob mistake.

[Anquietas314]

Yeah that was it, node was at 180. Didn't think it would practically matter what way it orbits and I don't have the delta v to burn 1800 m/s. Noob mistake.

You shouldn't need 1800m/s deltaV to reverse your satellite's orbit. I've yet to see a contract that has a low enough orbit for that - instead either do the burn at apoapsis if you're in a reasonably elliptical orbit already, or raise it (at periapsis) and then do it. A variation on a bi-elliptical transfer might help with the efficiency if you're low on fuel.