Help with specifying orbits

[Chris Hopkins]

Hi,

I'm doing an asteroid mapping mission and I need to put my sattelite in a specific orbit. I've done this before, but for some reason it won't work for me at the moment. I believe I've got it all set, but the mission paramters thing will just not go green as it has done in the past. Can anyone see what I've got wrong here, or any other suggestions welcome.:

I'm at the stage where I'm convinced it's either user error, or a bug. Hopefully the former...

 

Thanks in advance.

[jimmymcgoochie]

A screenshot of map view would help as it shows the target orbit and your current orbit; the two might not fully line up.

[HvP]

I see that the contract orbit is very near to Kerbin's orbit. Has your satellite left Kerbin's sphere-of-influence yet?

The contract system doesn't consider your craft in orbit of the Sun if you are still inside the SOI for any other planet, even if you are on an escape trajectory for solar orbit.

If that is the case then you just need to time-warp or wait until your craft has completely left Kerbin's sphere-of-influence. That is assuming that all other contract parameters have been met sufficiently.

Edit to add: I just noticed your altimeter is reading an altitude large enough to be in orbit around the Sun. So ignore my statement above.

It's unlikely that you are orbiting in the wrong direction (which can cause contracts to fail) but I don't think that orbital direction is normally a requirement for asteroid scanning missions. If the orbits appear aligned from above then I would make extra sure that your inclination is correct. But as already mentioned, it's difficult to say without a screenshot of your orbit map view.

Edited October 20, 2020 by HvP

[Chris Hopkins]

Sorry for the delay in getting back with those images. Please find attached.

 

[Wobbly Av8r]

While your orbit parameters looked pretty much right on in the top post / image, because the orbit is slightly elliptical, it doesn't appear that your Ap and Pe are in the same location as those of the orbit it was expecting... so I think the easiest solution would be to make a maneuver node at one of the two locations where your orbit crosses the specified orbit and perform the proper "Radial In" or "Radial Out" to "twist" the orbit into place. [Edit: One of the crossing points is at the (visual) 2:30 position relative to Kerbin in the top map image and would require a radial out burn. If your other parameters of Ap and Pe are still "on target" you should only need a radial burn]

That's what it appears like to me, but I could be mistaken. At least check into the maneuver node to see what's possible...

Good luck!

Edited October 21, 2020 by Wobbly Av8r

[Superfluous J]

What @Wobbly Av8r said. You need to actually match the orbit they want, not just get some of the parameters correct

In particular, you do not have the same argument of periapsis as they do. Which you'd know if the game told you. Frankly I hate that the game tells you any of this. They should just say "put your orbit where it shows the orbit in map mode, going the direction you see the orbit in map mode swirling."

But because they don't, I will say it. IGNORE THOSE NUMBERS. Just go into map mode and make your orbit match theirs. This time and every time. It will save you so much heartache and pain.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Superfluous J

[MZ_per_X1]

I recently got a sentinel contract. It did not have to be a new one so I thought I would just move my sentinel to the new orbit. I checked in the tracking station and the new orbit required only a few hundreds of delta v to raise apoapsis and periapsis. I thought let's do it. I switched to the sentinel to set up maneuver nodes but I had no green lines. I went to check the contract and it showed as orbit reached. So it makes me think that there's a large deviation that is allowed for these contracts. 

[Chris Hopkins]

Success!
I wasn't aware there were orbital parameters that had to be met, that were not listed either in the conract details, or in the oribital parameters information. Sneeky!

 

I also wasn't aware there was that illustration of which orbit you had to reach. Live and learn!

 

Thanks muchly!

[king of nowhere]

2 hours ago, Chris Hopkins said:

Success!
I wasn't aware there were orbital parameters that had to be met, that were not listed either in the conract details, or in the oribital parameters information. Sneeky!

actually, the orbit is specified by the parameters. i think which way the periapsis points is the argument of periapsis, but i don't know how to interpret it