Need Help With A Munar Satellite Contract

[Kardea]

Hokay, so:

I took a contract to place a satellite "in a specific orbit" around the Mun. I equipped the satellite correctly per the contract's requirements, flew it to the Mun, and reached what appears to be the correct orbit. Seriously, folks... I'm within like 250 meters margin of error on the Apoapsis/Periapsis and the inclination appears to be right, though I'm not entirely sure how to check it for exact precision in comparison to the requested angles. All of that being said, and despite the fact that my satellite's orbit is virtually identical to the requested one... I can't get a green checkmark on the "Reach the designated orbit around the Mun with minimal deviation" contract requirement. Is this a bug or am I doing something completely wrong?? Picture for reference:

Edited December 28, 2014 by Kardea

[The_Rocketeer]

Are you orbiting around Mun in the right direction? A few people have posted similar problems and I believe this is typically the cause.

[maltesh]

Aye, 157° inlclination is a retrograde Munar orbit. Compare the direction the dots are moving arouynd the orbit to the direction that your spacecraft is moving, or hover your mouse over the AN and DN markers. If the dots are going the opposite direction of your spacecraft, or the AN/DN says something like 180°, you're orbiting in the wrong direction.

[Kardea]

Thanks, all. I appreciate the heads-up. Maltesh: for those of us still learning what I'm going to tenatively call "space geography"... how do I know that a 157 degree inclination is retrograde? Is there a tutorial somewhere that explains it?

[Spheniscine]

Wikipedia on orbital inclination

To answer your question, >90 degrees will be retrograde (clockwise from north), <90 degrees will be prograde (counterclockwise from north). Do not confuse it with the orbital prograde/retrograde vector; even though you're on a "retrograde" orbit, the direction you are going is still "prograde".

If the inclination is at (or close) to 90 degrees, it'd be a polar orbit (or nearly so) so paying attention to where the dots move is even more important as it could be "clockwise" or "counterclockwise" depending on where you look...

[The Yellow Dart]

I Agree with Rocketeer. Looking at the orbital parameters, it is a retrograde orbit, because it says the inclination is 157°. If it were a prograde orbit, the inclination would be 23° I think. Anything more than 90° (a polar orbit) is retrograde, so make sure you are moving clockwise as you look down on the moon, not counterclockwise. If you mouse over your ascending and descending nodes (the an and dn markers), the wrong direction will make it say 180° rather than 0°.

[FlyingPete]

You can tell in the map view which way to put the satellite by the movement of the dots on the target orbit. Make sure you're coming into a Munar trajectory in the right direction.

[Kerba Fett]

Don't feel too bad about it not completing. There's a guy on the steam forums with a contract for a circular orbit around the Mun with an allowable variation of 2 meters. I'm not even sure the game is capable of measuring that accurately, but that's what the contract is calling for and it won't complete till it gets it.

I've simply been avoiding orbit contracts till the next version.

[DeMatt]

Don't feel too bad about it not completing. There's a guy on the steam forums with a contract for a circular orbit around the Mun with an allowable variation of 2 meters. I'm not even sure the game is capable of measuring that accurately, but that's what the contract is calling for and it won't complete till it gets it.

You're talking about this thread, right? The difference between apoapsis and periapsis (your "allowable variation of 2 meters") is not the same as the leeway you get for achieving said apoapsis and achieving said periapsis.

Without looking at the save in question myself, I can't say what isn't properly triggering, since he says that the satellite is indeed orbiting in the right direction. My guess would be that the "undefined" Argument of Periapsis is incorrectly being required, given that his periapsis happens to be 180 degrees away from the designated periapsis.