What am I doing wrong?

[Fenris]

So after a 2 year break I don't seem to remember anything

 

I took a contract to place a satellite in a polar orbit, and I believe I have the AP and PE close enough to satisfy the contract. The inclination in the contract is less than half a degree off and the satellite has all the parts required. My problem is that the contract wants the ascending node to be 232.6 degrees and mine is at 180 degrees. I just don't see how I can have a 232 AN while in the polar orbit the contract shows.

 

Here is a screenshot showing my problem. My orbit and the red orbit (the contract one), seem to be almost identical, so I'm at a loss.

[DunaManiac]

29 minutes ago, Fenris said:

So after a 2 year break I don't seem to remember anything

 

I took a contract to place a satellite in a polar orbit, and I believe I have the AP and PE close enough to satisfy the contract. The inclination in the contract is less than half a degree off and the satellite has all the parts required. My problem is that the contract wants the ascending node to be 232.6 degrees and mine is at 180 degrees. I just don't see how I can have a 232 AN while in the polar orbit the contract shows.

 

Here is a screenshot showing my problem. My orbit and the red orbit (the contract one), seem to be almost identical, so I'm at a loss.

Ah, I see the problem.I believe they want you to go in a retrograde orbit. The only time that you will see an AN of 180 deg is when you are orbiting in the opposite direction as your target, such as if you are prograde and your target is moving in a retrograde orbit, and vice versa. So what you should have done is when you launched, you should have gone in the opposite direction as you ordinarily do, i.e towards the mountains rather than over the ocean. Since your inclination is alright, you should just change your orbit to a retrograde orbit, and you should be alright

[SkyFall2489]

1 hour ago, DunaManiac said:

Ah, I see the problem.I believe they want you to go in a retrograde orbit. The only time that you will see an AN of 180 deg is when you are orbiting in the opposite direction as your target, such as if you are prograde and your target is moving in a retrograde orbit, and vice versa. So what you should have done is when you launched, you should have gone in the opposite direction as you ordinarily do, i.e towards the mountains rather than over the ocean. Since your inclination is alright, you should just change your orbit to a retrograde orbit, and you should be alright

In english, you're going backwards. You need to be going in the opposite direction.

[Fenris]

Thanks! I never even considered orbiting the opposite direction.

[Bej Kerman]

I was just about to say the same thing as well - I've seen others make this mistake as well, spending hours fine tuning their orbit within literal inches, only to be told they're going in the complete wrong direction 

[Fenris]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

I was just about to say the same thing as well - I've seen others make this mistake as well, spending hours fine tuning their orbit within literal inches, only to be told they're going in the complete wrong direction 

Yup, did another launch and left the atmosphere going south instead of north and got the contract completed. I didn't even feel like I had the orbit close enough, in fact I was looking at the encounter I was going to make with the Mun's SOI and debating if I should shrink my orbit until I passed by or just wait for the encounter to be over and see where I ended up when the contract completed

[Vanamonde]

20 hours ago, Fenris said:

Thanks! I never even considered orbiting the opposite direction.

It's an extremely common mistake. I suspect every one of us has done it once or twice. 

[modus]

Yes, only once or twice...

[DialoMalison]

... or thrice

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[imcute]

launch from dessert launchpad

ull going to experience inverse coriollis forces