[WIP] Theme Park Ride: Space Shuttle

[Lasse D]

I am working on building the classic video game Theme Park in LEGO using a lot of NXT's, conveyor belts to get minifigs to walk around and try out the rides. You can read more about the standard I am using here: https://c-mt.dk/mmm/

I have Discovered that the ride, that I have Endevoured into here, is the most Challenging Enterprise of Columbian proportions: Space Shuttle. Should I fail, then I'm sure this will sink like Atlantis.

There is not much info online about this, but you can see the Wiki entry here: https://bullfrogproductions.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Shuttle

The LEGO model is full of smaller challenges that all have to be solved. The current state of this model is not pretty:

It is very much a work in progress!

But let's dive into the challenges.

Challenge 1: The Outer Track

The first is to get visitors into the ride, and leave it again. The track has the following deviation in order to allow visitors get in and out:

The wheel helps push the track down in order to avoid the issue seen with the Bouncy Castle in this video:

The two rides in that video use the following mechanism to allow a single motor to make the figures either pass by, enter or exit the ride:

For the new module, I am using a much simpler mechanism, which is "stolen" form the original 8094 LEGO Technic Control Center.

If this new drive turns out to be a success, then I will try to update the old modules similarly.

Challenge 2: Getting Figures into the Space Shuttle

I have been working on 4 different approaches for getting people into the space shuttle:

- From the front by having the cockpit tilt up.

- From the back by having that section lift similarly

- From the side using a door like in a bus

- From the side by lifting the whole wing.

In the current version I have gone with the full-wing lift. I am not sure if this was a vise choice, since it has turned out to be quite a challenge. It would, however, be super cool if I got it to work. Here are the details:

The track splits up underneath the space shuttle. This section is able to lower in order to allow the shuttle to move back and forth.

It lifts to a bit higher than level:

When lifted, it grabs onto the shuttle in order to keep it in place:

From the inside of the shuttle, the tracks fit into some slots. There is space for 3 minifigs in the ride:

The idea is that by running the tracks, 3 figures should be pushed toward the wall, which fills the ride.

Unfortunately, testing shows that the figures prefer to place themselves like this:

The figure outside simply does not have enough traction to push the others to the sides. This is a problem that I have not yet solved properly.

Challenge 3: The Door Mechanism

Originally I wanted to push the wing up directly. However. A lot of distance had to be cleared for this approach, so I changed to a separate lifting arm to push the door up. This mechanism looked like this, and had an arm dangling next to the cockpit of the shuttle:

That mechanism was fairly unreliable, as it pushed the shuttle too much. So I went with another approach: Adding the lifting mechanism to the shuttle itself, instead of outside.

The suspension arms of the shuttle now look like this:

By turning the white clutch wheel, the door opens up:

Now the challenge for me is to drive the clutch wheel, but that should be possible from the big arm of the ride that holds the shuttle, which leaves the largest challenge:

Challenge 4: The Big Rotating Arm

The crazy part of this ride is that it goes upside down in the video game. I want to recreate that in LEGO. This will require a very strong mechanism. I think that a counterweight might be necessary, but let's wait with this challenge until the other ones get solved.

I will keep you updated with progress in this thread, and feel free to come with ideas and input.

[Mr Jos]

Oh man it's a great discovery that I found out you are planning 1 set per month, but the bigger ones like this will be a challenger to make that big enterprise work.

About the tracks you use going in/out, when you pushed on them it seemed like there was no guiding underneath them? Could maybe putting tiles/liftarms depending on the gear you use help? I did put them everywhere as much as I could under my chains/small tracks to prevent them tearing apart. But it might be a great endeavour to put guiding under all, maybe try with the module giving the most problems.

Getting hungry from writing, gonna eat an orion cookie.

[Lasse D]

Thanks. Unfortunately the chase of 1 per month has meant that I have had to build other, simpler, rides in order to keep up with the throughput!

You are right about the support under the tracks. I try to use as few rollers as possible in order to reduce cost. I am still working on the right balance here.

The first design used these wheels and tyres:

Unfortunately the diameter is slightly too small, causing figures to become stuck, as seen in some of my corner modules.

These wheels have a more fitting diameter:

And as you can see, there is some space between them, which cause the track to go a bit up and down. I will see if this works better with closely spaced wheels as you suggest.

Another approach is to use tiles and curved slopes like this:

This approach results in a nice a flat ride, but the friction is much greater (and parts get scratched and eventually have to be replaced)

This is the design I'm using on the tracks going into the shuttle. The outer track uses the design with the white rollers.

 

Right now I'm working on the tower that holds the ferry. It seems like I have to use an EV3 for this module, as connecting more functions together results in too many fairly unreliable Technic links. I only have 3 EV3 bricks, but this will also be the most complex ride, so it might be worth it.