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Dont be...and no your not!!!
You know why they have 8 people doing the SAME friggin job in mission control during missions at NASA??
BECAUSE its a PROVEN FACT that its really easy to get 'tunnel vison' when dealing with stuff like this.....the equations, the numbers.......its soooo easy to focus on one aspect and let the rest fly to the wind. This is why so many people in mission control....the more sets of eyes ya have on the same set of numbers or whatever the less lickly it is for something to be missed.
Your not stupid at all, just got a bit of tunnel vision in the numerical values.
If you're early on in your career avoid doing sattelites away from Kerbin, just stick to Kerbin orbit. Once you've done one you'll keep getting missions to do more, create a "one size fits all" launch stage and then top it with whatever the contract calls for - usually different science gear - and just keep launching them over and over. You'll make a good pile of cash to get those much needed building upgrades and then can start reaching out to other locations.
If you do have MechJeb installed make sure you have enough science researched so you can activate Landing Guidance. If you create the right kind of satellites, the ones with the science gear, you can send them out to gather science from around Kerbin and then splash it down in the water - the Landing Guidance automation can land the sattelite witout a parachute as long as you set your touchdown speed to 5ms. Not only do you get the science, but you'll also get the cash back from the recovered components.
Sattelites once launched don't need to stay in orbit, the contract is to get them there - not keep them there - so you can totally return them to Kerbin if you want, its your game so have fun with it.
Couple parachutes is ALOT cheaper than the fuel your gonna burn in a powered decent through atmosphere...esp the pea soup thick atmo of Kerbin.
edit:
Ive landed craft well over 600 tons on Kerbin with only chutes...can be done with just about anything =)
Unless the orbit you're putting the sattelite into is really out there, you should have more than enough delta-v left over in that final stage to deorbit and soft land on Kerbin. Especially when taking advantage of the pea soup Kerbin atmosphere, you'll bleed out all but about a 150-200 m/s - which the small probe engine will be able to decelerate down to 5 m/s without any issue.
About the only time you'd need the parachutes is if you're trying to save on fuel, which is dirt cheap compared to the components, and need to put it down on land, which there isn't any reason to considering the abundance of water on Kerbin.
First and foremost, biggest refund on parts you can get landing in water anywhere on Kerbin is 96%...land on the KSC and get 99%....usually not a big deal...but if your tight on cash anyway...and some science gear is not cheap early game.
Cheapest parachute is just over 400....LF is .8 a unit and Ox is .18 a unit...so yea, that could go either way, but more times then not when looking just at this aspect your correct.
But overall from a cashback standpoint your better of using chutes. (dont forget you get a refund on the chutes...not the fuel spent during decent).
But, thanks to your clarified analysis above, I'll look into modifying my stock "sattelite launcher" to include some parachutes. :-)
BUT its with just cause....back in 0.19 I had a MASSIVE station around Kerbin...was the biggest construct I have made in KSP to date....was 1200+ part, purdy laggy =P
It was built over the span of 8 years....was in operation for close to 40, was home off and on to around 130 Kerbals, had massive fuel depot and kethane storage/refining, was huge spaceport and jumpoff point for all interplanetary flights......
Then one day an old Comms relay sat (one no longer beign used I should add) comes by...and in what had to be like 1 in 10000000 chance just totaly wrecked shop on the station.....
80 brave Kerbals lost theirs lives that day...and almost nothing salvagable of the station...was an awesome sight to behold!
Since then I have been a real stickler for leaving nothing in orbit that does not need to be...
And btw, you might want to look Planetes (or PlanetES, I don't know) an Anime (a more or less realistic at that) centered around the removal of space debris (well until the whole SDF and Jupiter story arcs where the space debris removal gets somewhat of a side point (at least in the former arc its still pretty important though))
1. Always look at the direction - I have been stuck a couple of times just to find out everything is perfect except for the direction, I was spinning the wrong way :)
2. Learn the basics of the Navball (wiki) and practice fine tuning your orbit. Quicksave often until you get used to it.
After having a few epic fails like you (looking for orbit target while around the wrong planet) those missions became easy for me. You will get better too ;) Good luck!
Your #1 could have been easy to avoid HAD you paid mind to the numbers....as inclination will tell ya what 'direction' your orbit needs to be in.
0deg inclination is your run of the mill equitorial orbit
90deg inclination is a polar orbit (this is where you would launch from KSC and turn toward the north pole).
180deg inclination is again an equitorial orbit....but going in the opposite direction a 0deg inclination orbit does.
270deg inclination is a polar orbit (launching from KSC and turning toward the south pole.
Now dont get me wrong......not saying to get hung up on the numbers....thats pointless I would agree 100%. But do give a quick glance at your target inclination, anything thats 91-359 is gonna be the opposite direction than most are used to making orbit.
Also should be noted that doing large inclination changes use MASSIVE amounts of fuel. It will save you alot of fuel/funds (esp early game) to launch close to your target inclination. This way once your in orbit you only have small adjustments to make.
Just to give ya an idea to change inclination from 0 to 90deg in 300Km orbit around Kerbin is 1200+ Dv manuver...
You are perfectly right about the specifics and I thank you for your clarification. Just remember thou - keeping it simple is important :)
Oh no...i agree 100%
I just like facts n numbers =P
Past looking at the numbers to give you general idea of whats going on they are pointless to use!
Much more simple and steamlined to just look at the target otbit aid....can even line everything up visually, like your talking about.
And dont stop here...once ya get some practice alot of stuff can be done visually.....I only calculate transfers to the outter most planets now....can eyeball ann encounter with eve, moho, duna and dres...done it a few times with Jool...but so many moons it never works out good if ya just guess lol....
but meh....rescue missions can be fun =)