What is the best orbit to use with Dmagic Orbital science Multispectral imager over Kerbin

[jackless]

I have a contract that ask to take multispectral imaging data over certain sectors of Kerbin while in orbit.

The five sectors are in the south hemisphere. Two of them are close to south pole.

I have put my satellite on a polar LKO. But I never pass over them. Always getting just right next to them and never getting the "Entering Sector ...".

Should I have put my satellite on a less inclined orbit?

Which orbit have a better chance of having the "now entering sector X" and still have time to activate the imager? LKO or HKO?

Edited June 6, 2015 by jackless
question answered

[FancyMouse]

consider the sector to be a hypothetical object on stationary orbit, and then pretend you're doing rendezvous to it.

[Captain Sierra]

I have a contract that ask to take multispectral imaging data over certain sectors of Kerbin while in orbit.

The five sectors are in the south hemisphere. Two of them are close to south pole.

I have put my satellite on a polar LKO. But I never pass over them. Always getting just right next to them and never getting the "Entering Sector ...".

Should I have put my satellite on a less inclined orbit?

Which orbit have a better chance of having the "now entering sector X" and still have time to activate the imager? LKO or HKO?

The answer to your final question is dependent on whether the region is cast from the surface as a cylinder or a cone. Due to my understanding of how KSP ground coordinates work (which is limited so take this for what you will), it should be projected as a cone. Therefore a higher orbit will a) have a larger area to cross and will be moving at a slower velocity relative the ground, making it a preferable choice.

I'd say the best solution, while still keeping your orbital period down so as to not burn clock time needlessly, is to use a Molniya lightning orbit (skim the north pole with a periaps <80km, then shoot up to a high apo almost as high as keostationary while over the south pole) for maximum loiter time with minimum orbital period.

[jackless]

consider the sector to be a hypothetical object on stationary orbit, and then pretend you're doing rendezvous to it.

I can select the sector as a "navigation beacon" but not as a target. And I don't know how to tweak my orbit for rendez-vous without using the target in map mode. I will try a few mod that I think could resolve this, like Science alert or the waypoint manager mod.

The answer to your final question is dependent on whether the region is cast from the surface as a cylinder or a cone. Due to my understanding of how KSP ground coordinates work (which is limited so take this for what you will), it should be projected as a cone. Therefore a higher orbit will a) have a larger area to cross and will be moving at a slower velocity relative the ground, making it a preferable choice.

I'd say the best solution, while still keeping your orbital period down so as to not burn clock time needlessly, is to use a Molniya lightning orbit (skim the north pole with a periaps <80km, then shoot up to a high apo almost as high as keostationary while over the south pole) for maximum loiter time with minimum orbital period.

Either Cylinder or cone, the higher orbit should, as you say, allow maximum loiter time inside the sector. Il go try the Molniya orbit right away.

[jackless]

Decided to cancel the contract after my probe Overheated and exploded somehow. Sending another one would cost more than the cancellation cost and success is not guaranteed.

The Molniya orbit helped a lot but could not get close enough to activate the entering sector message.

The last pass I was able to be at around 50km laterally (lateral distance taken from the Waypoint manager) from one of the targeted sector while I was close to the apogee of a 8h orbit (did not note the actual altitude when that happen).

The waypoint manager mod helped me with the distance check also.

As for the shape of a sector, I will try to repeat the experiment but with one on the equator.

Thanks for the help.