I feel so dirty... I just used alt+f12 for the first time.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I accepted a contract for a polar orbit and matched up perfectly with the designated position.

Nothing would trigger the complete condition, I even tried editing the persistent file to increase the allowed tolerance, but that didn't work.

Mechjeb did a worse job than I did flying manually!

I've now sullied my save game by using cheat console to compete the contract.

Is this a bug, or are the tolerance requirements that ridiculous?

[Bill Phil]

Were you going the opposite way? :|

[Alshain]

Most common problem is the orbit is going the opposite direction as indicated by the moving little dots on the target orbit.

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

You're going the wrong direction.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Dang it!

That must have been it.

I don't remember direction being specified in the contract.

Oh well, better luck next time.

Thanks Gang!

[stibbons]

It's always specified. Check out the orbit in the map view or in the tracking station. The orbit will have little dots running along it that indicate which direction to go in.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I'd seen the dots, but I never knew what they were for.

I'm not a total noob, but have just been ignoring the orbit contracts for more fun stuff.

[StrandedonEarth]

Also check the An/Dn markers on the target orbit. If they say 180, then (to quote Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:) "You're going the wrong way!!"

[Johno]

I had a station which was to land on Minimus. Unbeknownst to me, I'd forgotten to set certain parts so that fuel didn't flow through them; therefore, when the Minimus orbit stage was dropped, the fuel tank of the lander stage was empty!

The station was hurtling towards the surface, and fuel ran out almost immediately.

Alt F12. . .

About 12 seconds of thrust were all it took. From there, the (enormous!) remaining reserve of Monoprop was sufficient to slow the craft to landing speed.

The ship was saved. But oh how sullied my soul . . .

[Voculus]

Don't feel dirty. It's not as if you Hyperedited the ship into orbit, or edited your persistence file. You put in the work, learned about a small quirk of contract missions, and justifiably reaped the reward!

[Renegrade]

A quick note about the retrograde satellite contracts: they'll also have a large inclination (>90 degrees). Be prepared for that if you see that sort of inclination (or decline them if you don't want to do that)....

Paying attention to the small details can often save one's bacon.

[Caelib]

[GoSlash27]

The moral of the story is always check the proposed orbit in the tracking station before committing to it and the little lights show the direction.

I hope this doesn't sour you on doing satellite contracts. They're quick, easy (once you get the hang of it), and highly profitable.

Best,

-Slashy

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I know how the OP feels. I just used hyperedit for the first time .

I've been testing a rover on the Mun. Like the 3rd or 4th trip, one last test , with the docking station this time. I schlep the whole contraption to the Mun, and discover I left the probe core off the docking station!

So I dl hyperedit, and teleport from the launch pad to lunar orbit. test worked, and I went back to my previous save.

IT WAS ONLY A TEST FLIGHT! STOP LOOKING AT MT LIKE THAT!

[Temeter]

Also happened once to me. Luckily enough it was an orbit around minmus, so i could literally turn around.^^

Otherwise it's actually pretty easy to get into the tolerance, using maneuver nodes or by hand.

[dryer_lint]

IT WAS ONLY A TEST FLIGHT! STOP LOOKING AT MT LIKE THAT!

But of course, test flights are just simulator flights. And since KSP is a simulator, test flights are a simulation within a simulation?

Now I want to see Nassault record Inception, with Kerbals.

[Whirligig Girl]

This is what the OP did

[GoSlash27]

I have no problem hyperediting for test flights in sandbox. Why mess around hauling a contraption to another planet that may or may not work? I look at it like running a simulation.

Best,

-Slashy

[OhioBob]

I know how the OP feels. I just used hyperedit for the first time .

I did too, though I think I have a good excuse. I've been experiencing some sort of glitch that has been messing up my orbits. I'll inject a spacecraft into an interplanetary trajectory and set up a nice encounter with the target planet. I'll then leave the spacecraft in cruise phase while I go a do something else. I'll then come back to it and the orbit has changed. My encounter is gone and I'm in a significantly different orbit than I left. There is no explanation because I didn't perform any burns and there are no other bodies nearby that could have altered the orbit. This has happened to me at least three times since the 0.90 upgrade. It has to be some sort of bug. Since I believe I got screwed over by the game through no fault of my own, I figured I was warranted in using infinite fuel to get me back on course (in one case I needed a 850 m/s burn to reproduce an encounter with my target planet).

Has anybody else had this problem?

[Deutherius]

Has anybody else had this problem?

My trajectories tend to change themselves slowly all the time when the physics are active. Circular orbits are fine, eccentric orbits are fine, but add an SOI change anywhere and the trajectory starts bending (usually when coming from interplanetary space towards a planet/moon). Only way to stop it is to be in time warp.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I hope this doesn't sour you on doing satellite contracts. They're quick, easy (once you get the hang of it), and highly profitable.

Best,

-Slashy

Armed with the knowledge gained in this thread, I returned to satellite contracts.

Also I accidentally broke the bank when upgrading the launch pad.

I'm still not great at launching into the desired plane from the launch pad, so I've overbuilt my ships to allow for that.

To quote Neal Stephenson "plane changes are expensive".

[cantab]

One other gotcha with satellite contracts: "Power" means a power source, ie solar panels or RTGs. A stack of batteries doesn't count. But the game starts giving you satellites when you unlock any power source in the tech tree, and that includes the launch clamps!

[Admiral-Helwyr]

I didn't know what alt/f12 did till today and I have been playing for 8 months

but you did not cheat, I mean it was almost a glitch.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

The only way I can see to make this right, is to launch a satellite in the correct direction and wiping out the one that "completed" the contract under false conditions.

[keeper]

I remember the first time i used it.

It was after I told myself -

"Either I'm going to have to redo this entire operation or i can just cheat this 50 or so m/s d/v."

it was for a all in one satelite around kerbin, i kept messing around with the inclination and apoapsis height. I was using ION thrusters and xenon.

I've loosened up a bit, I will use the cheat menu from time to time, to save time when i've been a foolish fool on a mission.