.

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[Majorjim!]

.............

Edited April 5, 2015 by Majorjim

[Yukon0009]

Ack. Mein. Gott. This is just fantastic.

Now mine looks like crap compared to yours.

This thing is fantastic.

[sgt_flyer]

It's quite nice although, isn't the trunk supposed to be empty (both for dragon V1 and V2, space manoeuvers are made by the capsule's engines - the trunk only carries vacuum capable payload, and the spacecraft's solar panels)

[Rune]

The KSP "2km max between 2 crafts" limitation gives 2 choice to the player;

Either use all the fuel in the Falcon 9's first stage and go for a lander gameplay (go to the Mun, land, come back for instance)

OR save some fuel and try to land the Falcon 9' first stage (just note that a rocket full of fuel is not recommended for landing).

Unfortunately it's impossible to do both at the same time within KSP as of now.

It can be done.

Rune. I should know, because I did it this morning.

[Yukon0009]

It can be done.

Rune. I should know, because I did it this morning.

It's possible, but probably not with this one.

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[Rune]

I think it's possible indeed but only if you can reach orbit with stage 1, with mine you can't, total craft's just too heavy.

Not really. You just need to get a high enough apoapsis to get to orbital speed while it's going up and down. Craft only get the "farther than 2.5km wipe" when you are below 20kms. Higher than that, and the discarded stage will keep alive until a short while before it's supposed to hit the ground (which actually allows for stable orbits inside the atmosphere as long as you don't focus the craft). I reckon if you did a proper trunk like the real thing, you would have enough oomph in the booster to do it, assuming proper piloting.

Rune. After all, if you don't have enough fuel with a first stage 50% bigger than mine, something fishy is going on.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[sgt_flyer]

The trunk can be used for two things - shroud small secondary payloads which stay attached to the upper stage, and released afterwards (like a picosat dispenser) - only and only if the upperstage has still enough deltaV left to both do it's secondary mission and deorbit itself afterwards (nasa requires that CRS missions upperstages deorbit themselves after releasing the cargo vehicle)

The trunk can also be used to transport vaccuum proof furnitures / things too big to fit in the hatch to ISS (Dragon V1 is already did things like this)

In terms of delta-v / thrust, having the trunk attached means it's a bit more dry weight for the spacecraft to carry around. (So less thrust / less dV) - but also much less weight to carry around for your booster, so the first and second stage dV and TWR would increase.

Dragon V1 trunk has fairings on it's sides to protect the deployable solar panels, while dragon V2 will have fixed solar cells on one side of the trunk, alongside 4 fins all along the sides of the trunk (these would help stabilising dragonV2 during abort)

As a side note,the dragon V2 has 8 superdracos arranged in four pairs, used in case of aborts and normal landings, but also for orbital manoeuvers and deorbitation. The attitude control is still provided with an array of the same small draco thrusters (dragon V1 only use those small dracos to do both orbital manoeuvers, deorbits and attitude control)

Wow, guess i spend waaay too much time how spacecraft / rockets work (i use my google-fu to gather lots of references to study before even attempting to replicate something (spaceX and falcon 9 are quite hard in this regard - there really little detailed technical specs to gather about it - spaceX can be quite secretive on some things)

Other rockets are much easier to get infos on

That said, once you can break down each rockets in the basic concepts behind each element, it helps a lot to speed up KSP's reproductions (as you already know the concept )

Edited March 26, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Jon144]

I really like the writing on the side of the rocket!

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Oh my kerbal! This so amazing! Landing gear! Space! Wow! +Rep!

*Continues to incoherently splutter*

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[Jon144]

It is the simple thing I appreciate. I am impressed not by functionality or micro hinges but instead writing on the side of the rocket!

[Guest]

Haha Well, That was really the polishing aspect ^^' but thanks anyway

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

What is that heatshield made out of?

[Majorjim!]

What is that heatshield made out of?

Looking at the pics I would say its upside down radial parachutes.

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[GusTurbo]

This is amazing. One thing I would suggest is a decoupler for the first stage rather than a stack separator, because the interstage fairing stays attached on the real thing. I haven't given this a try yet, but I am eager to play with it.

[Guest]

This is amazing. One thing I would suggest is a decoupler for the first stage rather than a stack separator, because the interstage fairing stays attached on the real thing. I haven't given this a try yet, but I am eager to play with it.

Interesting idea but I think that the decoupler would completely ruin the look of the lander

[Zucal]

Interesting idea but I think that the decoupler would completely ruin the look of the lander

You could try this trick if you're worried about the decoupler being too flashy: offset a large SAS unit up into the decoupler. May help you control it better, too!

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I'm building a full-size Falcon 9 and Dragon v2, would you mind if I used your clever lettering idea? I'd credit you.

It would look something like this:

[Guest]

.

Edited December 13, 2016 by RevanCorana

[GusTurbo]

Interesting idea but I think that the decoupler would completely ruin the look of the lander

You could use Zucal's trick, or you could use a smaller decoupler and just offset it inside the ASAS unit, for a smooth look.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Go ahead no problem bud.

Great! Thanks for your permission!