Recon Drone [EASY] (v0.16)

[pebble_garden]

You are to send a recon drone to look for possible survivors from an aborted space launch. Current intel suggests the crew might have been able to reach the pair of islands approximately 165 km NE of the Space Center. Time is of the essence, and an aircraft is too slow. We need eyes on those islands ASAP, and the drone can get there in five minutes.

Use the recon drone provided or design your own. Send your unmanned/uncontrolled vehicle to glide over the island at a distance of not more than about 5km lateral distance, and take clear pictures.

Target trajectory example:

Recon photo example:

Instructions

1. Drop the Recon Drone .craft file in your Ships\SPH\ folder. (Or design your own, following the guidelines set out in the Rocket Javelin Challenge: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/17857-The-Rocket-Javelin-Challenge!) The craft must be unpiloted in any way, and made of stock parts only.

2. Open it in the spaceplane hangar and adjust the launcher heading and up-angle to get the drone to the island. You can do this by clicking on the crew pod/ launcher and using the Shift-W/S keys for pitch and Shift-A/D for heading adjustments. Save the modified launcher with a new name and fire it off.

3. Wait for the green ready light to appear in the lower left part of the screen, then hit the space bar once to fire the engine, and a second time to decouple it from the launcher. Then quickly press the right bracket key, "]" to switch the camera to the unmanned drone.

4. At this point you're just along for the ride. The drone will fly to wherever you aimed it, and ultimately crash.

5. When you get within about 5km of the islands, take a screenshot with F1, and post it.

6. If you didn't get close enough to the islands, adjust your launcher angles and try again.

7. Be aware there's a little randomness in the direction the drone ends up gliding out. You may have to try more than once to get just the right final heading, even if your ballistic trajectory is perfect.

Scoring

Bronze

- You got within sight of the islands, but not close enough for a clear picture.

Silver

- You were able to get clear pictures of the islands.

Gold

- You glided directly over the islands, and have the picture to prove it.

Platinum

- Your drone lands/impacts on one of the two islands.

Final Notes

Of course there's nothing on the island to see, but getting there is tricky.

Remember the planet is rotating eastward, so the islands will have moved by the time you reach the end of your trajectory. Lead your target!

This challenge grew out of my obsession with the Rocket Javelin challenge. I don't want to say how much time I've spent on it...but it's a lot. Over time I decided it might be fun to try to hit the two islands NE of the space center. It proved surprisingly tricky because the glider doesn't always end up gliding in the direction I want. And maybe I was also inspired by my recent nostalgia regarding Lawn Darts and other dangerous toys I had as a child.

I'm very proud of my Recon Drone craft. There's not a single extraneous piece on it, it's all stock parts, and it flies well in both the powered- and terminal-glide phases. Well...it does have one quirk in the ascent phase. As you'll find out! See if you can figure out how to take advantage of it.

Edited August 28, 2012 by pebble_garden