Request Lunar dragons

[francisdrake]

Being a bit frustrated with the overweight single-stage lander, I look into a two-stage concept.

The ascent stage is a Crew Dragon pressure vessel (without the outer skin), a ring of fuel tanks and a single ascent engine.
The descent stage is the body of a DragonXL with fuel tanks, two engines and flip-down landing legs (like for the Falcon9, but much smaller).

With the same payload requirements, this comes down to 14 ton only (where the single-stage lander had 30 ton).
Next I will try to incorporate the dV for Lunar capture, to eliminate the separate capture stage, and stay within the throwing capacity of a FalconHeavy.

 

[barrygolden]

could you add this as a LOI stage
any thought to using the Super dracos to land this lander looks like could have a plat form for and elevator

 

[francisdrake]

Made a two-staged version of a Dragon-based Lunar lander. Structural weight and fuel are on the very edge! This is as much as a single FalconHeavy can carry to the Moon. Still you might run out of fuel during landing or when launching back into Lunar orbit.

Scenarios include launch, Trans Lunar Injection, Lunar orbit for landing and launch back to orbit.

 

[barrygolden]

Really looks super but couple things , how do you lower the landing legs and sep the upper stage

are the gold boxes there to hole cargo and a rover ? going to need some EVA lights do to it is real dark at the South Pole
might need to think about some Space X next generation of Space suit For EVA on the Moon

Going to need a deep Space version on Dragon as well

 

[Donamy]

Really looks super but couple things , how do you lower the landing legs and sep the upper stage

are the gold boxes there to hole cargo and a rover ? going to need some EVA lights do to it is real dark at the South Pole
might need to think about some Space X next generation of Space suit For EVA on the Moon

Going to need a deep Space version on Dragon as well

Hopefully the rover and hab will already be there.

 

[barrygolden]

Here is the Lander at Malpert_A__rim you can see how dark this is

 

[francisdrake]

how do you lower the landing legs and sep the upper stage?

Short answer: You can't.
As this is more a proof-of-concept, it is a simple cfg-file lander. The launch and landing configuration are represented as two separate vessels, named "DragonLLstowed" (for the launch from Earth) and "DragonLL" for cruise and landing.

If you really want to fly a mission from Earth launch to Moon landing, after the TLI burn and spacecraft separation, quit the simulation, then go the scenario file "Scenarios/(Current state).scn" and open it with a text editor.

In the section BEGIN_SHIPS look for the line "DragonLL\ DragonLL\DragonLLstowed" and delete the "stowed".
Then save the scn-file and re-start the simulation. The lander is now in cruise configuration, with the landing legs extended.
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I am not sure if this concept shall be further explored. The fuel safety margins are practically zero, both for the FalconHeavy and the Lander. I think moon landings using launchers like the FalconHeavy or the VulcanCentaur would require a lightweight lander designed from scratch, and probably an Earth orbit rendezvous introducing a transfer stage or space tug to bring the lander to the Moon.

 

[barrygolden]

this a super looking addon and could be a really fun one to fly I do hope that your able to add some of this stuff to it