Dwagon. Now with 100% more Dracos!

[Rune]

So... I'm getting good at this KSP thing. This took a mere one hour and 116 parts, including the single test flight. Much better than I expected... I only had to F9 once! Which is actually due to the only inaccuracy that sneaked in, BTW: since I couldn't get SpaceX's awesome tankage mass fractions, a single "Merlin" (LV-T45s) just can't give TWR over 1 going down, so you have to go with three like in the retro-burn.

But what is it that I like enough to put it out there so quickly? Well, mostly the fact that I eyeballed the fuel level on the first try to the point where staging the (empty) second stage after landing the core (no mods and all done in one go sequentially) leaves the Dwagon on a 99x70km orbit while the second stage goes back to a disposal 55x80km orbit (two big decouplers working on such small weights can do wonders). Talk about nailing it! The Dwagon itself is clipped to kingdom come, of course, but it has 500m/s, TWR 1.3, and the four (pressurised) seats baselined for NASA. I have yet to land it, though, and I didn't put chutes in the prototype (truth be told, I didn't expect to make orbit without something going wrong). Maybe I'll regret that when I get around to testing reentry... I threw in a couple when I revised the action groups for you guys, though, so that should pose no problem. Also, check out the trunk, plenty of room in there for... ... ...well, it's not really functional ^^'. But get KAS, and you can clip containers in there and stuff!

Oh, now that I think about it, you probably need a flight plan too. It's quite simple, really, though it has its challenging moments if you want to go all reusable on the sucker:

-Straight up until 10kms, throttling down a notch once you reach 130m/s to keep aerodynamic efficiency hovering at about 95%, According to KER.

-Pitch about 2.5º towards the 90 (half a line on the navball), and burn the core until your apoapsis reads about 60kms. This will leave the core falling mostly over KSC. Then cut throttle and stage, you need that remaining fuel to land!

-Stage again to turn on the upper stage, throttle back up (slowly, it clips a bit), and burn horizontal until you run the second stage dry.

-Switch back to the core now, it'll be dropping quite close to KSC. Hit "brakes" to turn off the excessive engines, and do the correction burns to put you as close to KSC as you dare (the trajectories thingy helps a lot). Landing gear is "G", of course. Good luck with the landing burn, there is margin in there, but I wouldn't drop under 50 m/s until I was really close to the ground. Also, even though I set her up at a 6.2 slope (!), I wouldn't try more than 5º: I landed at 1.5 m/s, and kept her pointing skywards with RCS while I hurriedly locked suspensions on the legs on one side, then proceeded to be very surprised when that kept it from toppling over. Plenty of control authority and stability, though, if you are a good pilot you will be able to do it without any problems.

Also, excuse the crappy images. For some reason, even though I see it gorgeous, the damn game stops applying all my awesome graphical effects to the screenshots. Sigh! Anyhow, there you have it:

IMGUR ALBUM:

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DOWNLOAD:

Dwagon

Dwagon v2 - NEW!

Rune. Always nice to "nail it" at first try. Or second.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune

[Yukon0009]

Very nice Rune!

[ToyotaTim]

Nice!!

A partcount of 116 is pretty good also! Btw, where do you get those clouds from, EVE (it doesn't look like EVE in my opinion though)? I'm looking for clouds that won't obliterate my framerate immediately

[Rune]

Very nice Rune!

Thanks! You were all going on about Dragons, and I had the idea for the legs on the booster, so I just experimented with fuel tanks to make the capsule and in the end did it with "old" structural parts. Feels like I could have built this four updates ago, but the gizmos made the whole thing a breeze!

Nice!!

A partcount of 116 is pretty good also! Btw, where do you get those clouds from, EVE (it doesn't look like EVE in my opinion though)? I'm looking for clouds that won't obliterate my framerate immediately

Well, these probably will obliterate it just the same, since they are indeed EVE. Plus the "Edge of Oblivion" pack by Astromoner on top! That is probably why it looks so different, it adds a ton of config files and other visual mods on top of that. What can I say, my trusty old GT9800 keeps on chewing KSP like its nothing... it's my much newer i5-3450 @3.1Ghz and my fancy double-channel 4x1Gb 800Mhz RAM that keep on having the issues with it!

Rune. Also, low part counts are kind of my thing. I went for "complicated" on this one!

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune

[Guest]

Not bad

May I ask what is the purpose of the set of stacked decouplers?

[Yukon0009]

For hiding the fuel?

And also, this is the first of the Dragon Replica Apocalyse!!!!

[Rune]

Not bad

May I ask what is the purpose of the set of stacked decouplers?

They make a nice hollow trunk, as I say in the OP. Maybe I should have taken a shot of it, showing the heatshield and such.

For hiding the fuel?

And also, this is the first of the Dragon Replica Apocalyse!!!!

The fuel is clipped inside the rockomax adapter. Actually, to be more precise, the rockomax adapter is placed on top of the tank, itself on the drone core, then dropped down with gizmos so I don't need fuel lines to run fuel to the engines. Simple does very much not mean that it doesn't have some subtle tricks.

Rune. I can't be the first... are you all guys still working on yours?

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune

[Keldaria]

So... I'm getting good at this KSP thing. This took a mere one hour and 116 parts,

Rune. Also, low part counts are kind of my thing. I went for "complicated" on this one!

Lol, TBH I was actually thinking, 116 parts? Damn Rune must be feeling sick, thats kind of up there for him on a craft like this =)

Awesome stuff none the less

[Yukon0009]

I am.

It has 300+ parts.

*#@%%$$!!!!

[Majorjim!]

I can't see the album on my phone so will take a look when I get home. I'm sure you squeezed a lot from that limited number of parts.

I've seen hollow dragons before, there was a very nice one released just after the official spaceX reveal a while back. But as I say, a Rune version is always great!

[Rune]

I can't see the album on my phone so will take a look when I get home. I'm sure you squeezed a lot from that limited number of parts.

I've seen hollow dragons before, there was a very nice one released just after the official spaceX reveal a while back. But as I say, a Rune version is always great!

Thanks for the flattery!

And yeah, check the album, I commented the flight chronologically and pulled off the whole reuse thing. In fact, I might even do the second half and land the Dwagon back this afternoon, so you will get to see a whole Dragon V2 mission like the one on

(minus the ISS docking, gotta work on that) once I update the album. Then again, I have a certain station-like thing to test that I reckon would look good on rendezvous pics if I build the launcher for it... this might take longer, it's a 175mT payload.

Rune. Does it count if you launch the target station after the ship?

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune

[Majorjim!]

So... I'm getting good at this KSP thing. This took a mere one hour and 116 parts, including the single test flight. Much better than I expected... I only had to F9 once! Which is actually due to the only inaccuracy that sneaked in, BTW: since I couldn't get SpaceX's awesome tankage mass fractions, a single "Merlin" (LV-T45s) just can't give TWR over 1 going down, so you have to go with three like in the retro-burn.

http://i.imgur.com/NNDcdCv.png

But what is it that I like enough to put it out there so quickly? Well, mostly the fact that I eyeballed the fuel level on the first try to the point where staging the (empty) second stage after landing the core (no mods and all done in one go sequentially) leaves the Dwagon on a 99x70km orbit while the second stage goes back to a disposal 55x80km orbit (two big decouplers working on such small weights can do wonders). Talk about nailing it! The Dwagon itself is clipped to kingdom come, of course, but it has 500m/s, TWR 1.3, and the four (pressurised) seats baselined for NASA. I have yet to land it, though, and I didn't put chutes in the prototype (truth be told, I didn't expect to make orbit without something going wrong). Maybe I'll regret that when I get around to testing reentry... I threw in a couple when I revised the action groups for you guys, though, so that should pose no problem. Also, check out the trunk, plenty of room in there for... ... ...well, it's not really functional ^^'. But get KAS, and you can clip containers in there and stuff!

http://i.imgur.com/y2gOAGt.png

Oh, now that I think about it, you probably need a flight plan too. It's quite simple, really, though it has its challenging moments if you want to go all reusable on the sucker:

-Straight up until 10kms, throttling down a notch once you reach 130m/s to keep aerodynamic efficiency hovering at about 95%, According to KER.

-Pitch about 2.5º towards the 90 (half a line on the navball), and burn the core until your apoapsis reads about 60kms. This will leave the core falling mostly over KSC. Then cut throttle and stage, you need that remaining fuel to land!

-Stage again to turn on the upper stage, throttle back up (slowly, it clips a bit), and burn horizontal until you run the second stage dry.

-Switch back to the core now, it'll be dropping quite close to KSC. Hit "brakes" to turn off the excessive engines, and do the correction burns to put you as close to KSC as you dare (the trajectories thingy helps a lot). Landing gear is "G", of course. Good luck with the landing burn, there is margin in there, but I wouldn't drop under 50 m/s until I was really close to the ground. Also, even though I set her up at a 6.2 slope (!), I wouldn't try more than 5º: I landed at 1.5 m/s, and kept her pointing skywards with RCS while I hurriedly locked suspensions on the legs on one side, then proceeded to be very surprised when that kept it from toppling over. Plenty of control authority and stability, though, if you are a good pilot you will be able to do it without any problems.

Also, excuse the crappy images. For some reason, even though I see it gorgeous, the damn game stops applying all my awesome graphical effects to the screenshots. Sigh! Anyhow, there you have it:

IMGUR ALBUM:

http://imgur.com/a/xzDqv

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./download/v44u6c5lmh6vsu8/Dwagon.craft

Rune. Always nice to "nail it" at first try.

Yup, looks the part alright. I love what you did with the double landing legs, very clever. So do I detect a hint that you will make a video? That would be awesome.

[Rune]

Yup, looks the part alright. I love what you did with the double landing legs, very clever. So do I detect a hint that you will make a video? That would be awesome.

Sadly, no video. I just suffered two internet outages while trying to watch a 20min youtube video... But concerning the legs, nice of you to notice, it's the thing that started the whole build idea. I saw you guys discussing legs somewhere else, and I suddenly had this idea that I could do a thing 75% as good-looking with 10% of the parts. Seemed like something worth exploding exploring.

Rune. 70% of the times people quote statistics, they are pulling the numbers out of their asses. Trust me.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Rune
Damn my typos!

[Majorjim!]

Rune. 70% of the times people quite statistics, they are pulling the numbers out of their asses. Trust me.

lool!

Yup, doing more with less is your specialty. Aww, no vid.. But I understand, the nets here are atrocious too..

[CG_Kerbin]

Good job! XD

[Rune]

Actually, I found a snag or two having a second look. Turns out that the legs won't clip through the heatshield in the capsule, and I also remembered was reminded that there are supposed to be eight SuperDracos in there. Took some finagling and pad abort tests to get that right. Plus, while I was at it, I retouched the legs with a central spar so they look better, especially going up and down, so to show them off more I also got rid of the auxiliary launch clamps. Which made for an interesting takeoff, with the full weight of fuel you can just barely keep it vertical on the pad... with help of the RCS. Looks like my rocket vents fuel like real rockets! Good thing I also added a crapton of fuel margin on the first stage so you no longer need to throttle down on the way up, and landing is much more forgiving.

Rune. Long story short: there is now a v2! The album will at some point be further updated.

[Yukon0009]

dragon v2 v2 lol

[Rune]

dragon v2 v2 lol

Yup, turns out I can't whip up a design in an our without some bugs slipping past me. But you know, it was a good excuse to fly the mission again. Check what I managed to do with the booster! (BTW, the album is also updated now).

Rune. Note that is my second try at doing that, third if you count quickloadings, and the only failure was due to not having enough engines on first time around. This is downright easy!

[Majorjim!]

Yup, turns out I can't whip up a design in an our without some bugs slipping past me. But you know, it was a good excuse to fly the mission again. Check what I managed to do with the booster! (BTW, the album is also updated now).

http://i.imgur.com/S1UOeHq.png

http://i.imgur.com/d3kroP7.png

Rune. Note that is my second try at doing that, third if you count quickloadings, and the only failure was due to not having enough engines on first time around. This is downright easy!

Nice landing Rune! Next time smack in the middle of the pad!

After a million planet landings it really does get very easy doing powered landings on Kerbin. The first had me puckered though!

[Guest]

That's a wobbly rocket tho, with 0 struting (and RCS ?). I have no idea how you managed to land it properly, must be those epic piloting skills..

[Rune]

Nice landing Rune! Next time smack in the middle of the pad!

After a million planet landings it really does get very easy doing powered landings on Kerbin. The first had me puckered though!

They still make me a bit green, this thing is just really easy to fly, as long as you are going down.

That's a wobbly rocket tho, with 0 struting (and RCS ?). I have no idea how you managed to land it properly, must be those epic piloting skills..

I noticed the v1 was a bit wobbly on the way up, fixed that in v2 with four struts between the first and second stage tanks. Even though it doesn't really matter much since you don't have to touch the controls on the way up, it's a mostly vertical first stage burn. However, the core on it's own has always been very rigid, and the aerodynamic surfaces on top means it is extremely stable when going down almost empty, while the Vernors still give enough control authority to put it it at >45º attack angles. Really, the core on the way down is one of the easiest rocket-powered VTOLs I've flown, very responsive while still wanting to turn so it is facing retrograde like you want it to. If you panic, all you have to do is let go of the controls and hit "Z", and you have literally minutes of burn time on the way down to finesse the trajectory and a TWR just shy of 3. Which one have you flown, BTW? Because both versions have HUGE amounts of RCS control (that you don't really need, but helps). But thanks for the vote of confidence in the flying skills

Rune. BTW, I wrote a nice launch guide in the file for the v2. Even simpler than v1's, just 5 steps!

Edited March 28, 2015 by Rune