Kerbal Space Program

Ok, my bad. Both get recognized when a smaller orbit is chosen (but however no maximal orbit size is given in the contract).

It would be nice to know if this behaviour is independent of the tracking station upgrade (but I cannot afford it yet).

So I started a new Career save to start this mission again and I just describe the steps.

1. Start a career save
2. Activate debug mode
3. Finish contracts until "Explore the Mun" appears, accept it
4. Launch a vessel and enter the Mun SOI
5. At the periapsis, burn to lower the apoapsis, attain orbit

"Achieve orbit around the Mun" is not finished
It is however possible to "Recover science from space around the Mun"

The vessel is in orbit but its situation is still shown as "ESCAPING" in the vessel view.
In the tracking station it is shown as "On escape trajactory out of the Mun" even if AP and PE are visible in the map.

6. Return to the vessel: It will actually return to Kerbin orbit even if in orbit around the Mun! It will just change SOI without further warning.

7. Or instead circularize. At an apoapsis of ~2.2Mm the situation will switch to ORBITING and the contract is fulfilled.

Maybe the name of this ticket should be changed, but it seems I cannot do this as a normal user.

I'm going to take a guess here. Before you have patched conics, orbits around Mun (for example) will be drawn as closed, even though the orbit is large enough that you will escape.

In other words, even though your current trajectory is actually an escape trajectory, it will be depicted as a closed orbit. I'm not sure if this is a bug, or an intended effect of not having patched conics.

Squelch, maybe you can take a look and see if you think it's a bug, or intended behavior. Try the following-
1. Start a new career, or use one with no TS upgrades (no patched conics).
2. Head out to Mun SOI.
3. Note how upon entering Mun SOI you get closed orbits depicted, even though your trajectory will have enough energy to return to Kerbins SOI.
4. Close your Mun orbit at a reasonable AP/PE.
5. Burn to return to Kerbin, watching your orbit depiction in Map view.
6. Note that the Mun orbit depicted is drawn as closed far beyond the point where you will return to Kerbin SOI.

I think what nanobot is experiencing is the lack of patched conics is leading him to believe he is in a stable orbit around Mun, although he is actually on an escape trajectory. Again, my guess is that this is an intended effect of not having patched conics, and not a bug.

Another way to describe this is that without patched conics, SOI changes are not predictively displayed. The predicted change from Kerbin to Mun SOI is not displayed, it just simply happens when you get there.
Likewise, the change back to Kerbins SOI from Mun SOI is also not predictively displayed. You can burn to raise your AP all you want, but the point where you are projected to leave Mun SOI is not projected on the map view. It just happens when you get there..

I'm leaning strongly towards this being Not A Bug.

RexKramer wrote:

I'm going to take a guess here. Before you have patched conics, orbits around Mun (for example) will be drawn as closed, even though the orbit is large enough that you will escape.

In other words, even though your current trajectory is actually an escape trajectory, it will be depicted as a closed orbit. I'm not sure if this is a bug, or an intended effect of not having patched conics.

Squelch, maybe you can take a look and see if you think it's a bug, or intended behavior. Try the following-
1. Start a new career, or use one with no TS upgrades (no patched conics).
2. Head out to Mun SOI.
3. Note how upon entering Mun SOI you get closed orbits depicted, even though your trajectory will have enough energy to return to Kerbins SOI.
4. Close your Mun orbit at a reasonable AP/PE.
5. Burn to return to Kerbin, watching your orbit depiction in Map view.
6. Note that the Mun orbit depicted is drawn as closed far beyond the point where you will return to Kerbin SOI.

I think what nanobot is experiencing is the lack of patched conics is leading him to believe he is in a stable orbit around Mun, although he is actually on an escape trajectory. Again, my guess is that this is an intended effect of not having patched conics, and not a bug.

But on SOI entry, the orbit is correctly drawn as a hyperbolic one, in flight mode (map view) and also in the tracking station. The orbit is a cone intersection, but just not patched.

It is possible to lower the orbital energy to the point where the hyperbola closes to a ellipse.
Leaving the flight and re-entering it from the tracking station still keeps the "ESCAPING" state.
The vessel is ejected from the SOI in a closed orbit, and the orbit is correctly drawn either as hyperbola or ellipsis (after insertion burn).

I think the problem here is that the diameter of the artificial SOI in the game is too small to hold an orbit with such a high apoapsis even if it is not an escape orbit technically.

Workaround: Update the contract such that it displays a maximal allowed apoapsis. This max. AP would ideally be inside the SOI of the body.

Hmm. The way the game handles orbits, you do not need to have a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit to be considered 'escaping', you just need to raise the AP on an elliptic orbit to the point where you are no longer in that SOI. A hyperbolic orbit will be depicted as being 'open', even with base level tracking station. An elliptic orbit will still be depicted as a 'closed' orbit, even though it will eventually travel beyond the SOI.

I like your suggestion of wording the contract to specify having an orbit with AP within that body's SOI, or something to that effect.

Is this still "Need More Info" or rather "Confirmed" ?

nanobot wrote:

Is this still "Need More Info" or rather "Confirmed" ?

Yes. It allows for discussion and suggestions on the feedback item. The confirmation is implied.

As we have now moved into beta, it is likely there will be bug squashing and polish applied at regular intervals. Items such as this which are a mixture of ambiguities and oddities, will be pushed forward for attention and clarification.