Lunar Dragon

[Dyna-Soar]

Thanks to the snow storm in North Alabama, UAH was closed for Monday and Tuesday and I decided that, with the time off, I'd tackle a project I've been meaning to do for some time. I modified Retired for Now's Falcon 9 kit by creating an Earth Departure stage and booster nose cones from the large diameter payload fairing included in the kit. I scatchbuilt the LES and BPC; I learned a lot about designing in MS word over the course of the project.

This particular configuration is intended for an Apollo 8-style flyby. A landing would be performed using two F9 heavies, one carrying the Dragon spacecraft and the other carrying the Wyvern lander and EDS (I'm making this up, bear with me) until the Falcon X is available.







Snow at the Charger Village food court

[dhanners]

That looks very good. A nice bit of innovation and scratchbuilding there.

And you do realize, of course, that up here in Minnesota, we look at the "dusting" of snow you guys got and wonder what the fuss is. So far this winter, we've gotten more than 45 inches of snow here, and most of it is still on the ground. Then again, we deal with snow routinely, and you don't, so I suppose I'll cut you some slack....

[Retired_for_now]

Nicely done! And a great use of a snow day.

Oh, and David. Problem down here is a combination of no practice on the "dusting" and the fact it's not cold enough to really get snow - so the stuff comes down, melts, and leaves a layer of ice. As I recall from Pennsylvania, Colorado and Alaska, nobody likes driving on the ice rink (entertaining as all get out to watch, though).

Yogi (still south of the snow line ... knock on my little wooden head)

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Nicely done! You might have put an idea into Elon Musk's head now! He seems craz- err.. bold enough to try and undertake a mission profile like that! I like the scratchbuilt LES a lot and the way you turned the shroud into a third stage. It all looks very feasible.

And, as everyone has a snow remark at the end, here's mine:
Up until new year's eve there was a big pile of snow and ice here in Grunn but when I woke up the next day it had rained and all was washed away and the streets were almost entirely clean. Quite a nice way to start a new year.

[Dyna-Soar]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

Nicely done! You might have put an idea into Elon Musk's head now! He seems craz- err.. bold enough to try and undertake a mission profile like that! I like the scratchbuilt LES a lot and the way you turned the shroud into a third stage. It all looks very feasible.

And, as everyone has a snow remark at the end, here's mine:
Up until new year's eve there was a big pile of snow and ice here in Grunn but when I woke up the next day it had rained and all was washed away and the streets were almost entirely clean. Quite a nice way to start a new year.

PM your e-mail address, and I'll send you the plans for the EDS and the LES.

[Dyna-Soar]

The bulk of it is from an old space toy assortment I got Christmas when I was 8 (parts of it has of found their way into many of my scratch/bashes) The rest of it is cardstock, and the left over LED lights from Cardmodel Tree 2010.

[Texman]

The lighting just adds an extra nice touch to an already nice model.