The Papa Dragon

[700NitroXpress]

This is my favorite design for an interplanetary exploration craft. You can carry 3 kerbals and send one down in the attached lander unit. The lander is rated up to Moho conditions for gravity escape and docking back with the main ship. The lifter attached to it uses a slack tank design that currently lifts objects up to and over 200 tons. The current ship is about 144 tons, cut down from the original size of 206 tons. The lifter gets the craft into orbit nicely with some fuel to spare for fine tuning and altitude adjustment. The remaining central engine can be refueled if a refueling craft is sent up and docks to the top of the lander pod. The lander pod is fitted with Ion engines for long term burns, best for inclination changes done in physical time warp. This saves on fuel during long trips. I'm currently working on putting different engine attachments onto it. I will attach a large docking port on the bottom of the center tank that feeds into the nuclear engines.

You can download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-vTRL2n8wvzTmVCdWM3RElYZHM/edit?usp=sharing

I know the struts look excessive, but they're all needed. Remember to power down engines to 3/4 above 10,000 meters otherwise there is a chance that the docking clamp connection could fail.

Here's a showcase of the craft with the new Leviathan super max payload lifter.

Edited November 11, 2013 by 700NitroXpress