Roblox Mars Park and Museum

Mars Park: a theme park celebrating the science, exploration, and colonization of Mars, set as a half-theme park-half-historical museum.

 

The park, built in a valley on the surface of Mars, will contain one large roller coaster, several thrilling flat rides, a kiddie section, a garden, and a museum.

 

The museum, set in the front of the park to the left, will contain replicas, models, artifacts, dioramas, and information on the exploration and colonization of Mars.

 

The garden, set in the back of the park, is a place for guests to relax and learn about the foliage engineered to survive on Mars.

 

The first ride is an S&S space shot, set to the right and behind the main entrance plaza. The ride will have extra theming attached to the car: a "heat shield" is attached to the bottom of the car, and large thrusters are attached at the top of the car. After the first "shot" reaches the top, the heat shield will be thrust downwards by the car where it is decelerated and stopped at the very bottom of the tower. The car will fall as it normally does, but on the rebound, the thrusters on the top will emit a mist as if they are "firing." After a second bounce, the ride will end, and the heat shield will be latched onto the car for the next cycle before unloading.

 

The second ride, a scrambler, will be near the back of the park. It will have themed cars to simulate the "traffic jam" that occurred before travel between Earth and Mars was regulated by a single body.

 

The kiddie area will consist of one ride: a car-with-powered-steering-rail ala the one at Knotts (I couldn't find a mfg). The cars are themed to look like early colonist rovers, with the ride circling models of robots that were sent to Mars.

 

Opposite the car ride is a bouncy castle made to appear like another early Mars colony.

 

The centerpiece of the park, the roller coaster, is the largest attraction: a fully-steel GCI-like Iron Horse with 3 launches and a full audio accompaniment. The coaster puts the riders in the passenger seat of an early supply ship going from Earth to Mars. The ride begins on Earth as the captain explains about the launch procedure, then the ride gets launched by a mass accelerator into a tour of the stars on its journey to Mars. The ride turns hairy when the semi-competent pilot careens through the atmosphere. Once supplies have been delivered to the first of two colonies, the ship gets caught in a dust storm. Luckily, the pilot is able to escape and put the ship down on the runway of the other major colony, where the ride ends. The first third of the ride is obviously heavily inspired by Space Mountain. The building that houses the first third of the ride is a dome that is painted to look like mars does from orbit.

 

The park is being built in a computer program called "Roblox." Roblox is a game that is a mesh of Garry's Mod, Legos, and professional developer kits like Unity and Unreal. Roller coasters are constructed by placing bricks at specific angles to create the track and scenery. The game has a fully-functional physics engine, where trains are guided on the track by the wheels and not on-rails like in NoLimits: if a piece of scenery intersects the track, the train will hit it. I realize I could use NoLimits or NoLimits2 to realize this (I have both), but I like the absolute freedom that Roblox provides.

 

This first update concerns the roller coaster.

 

The overview of the current, incomplete layout

 

The ride overview with notes on layout and changes

An error exists in this drawing: there section after the last hill should be pink to identify a brake segment.

 

The dust storm element occurs too soon after the third launch: it would be immersion-breaking for the ship to take off from the runway when the storm is right in front of it. I will be moving it so that the building blocks it from being seen while on the third launch so that it is a surprise.

 

Overview of the indoor section of the ride.

The indoor section will have its track painted black instead of orange.

 

After "entering the atmosphere of mars," the ride goes into some exciting twists to simulate a barely-in-control flight

The second part of the ride, where the ship enters Mars's atmosphere for the first time. This includes some thoughts about theming.

 

The second MCBR and third launch will be placed on a hill next to the food court. A diorama of an early colony will be placed next to it

The second MCBR and third launch, with thoughts about theming.

 

A top-down view of the "dust storm" element. Includes 2 overbanked curves and 1 outward-bank

 

A different view of the "dust storm"

The trains are a mix of Arrow Looper and PTC designs, with theming to resemble a space ship. Because of an oversight on my part, the cars and track are wider than the real-life counterparts, but it is likely that if this park were built in real life (on mars) that differences between contemporary designs and the design in its time would be different.

 

Profile of the train. A hybrid of PTC and Arrow Looper trains, with theming attached. I will add a piece to the bottom of the cockpit so it looks better.

Because of concerns of physics latency, the wheels do not steer like they would in real life.

 

A close-up of the theming on the front.

 

On the back you can see the dovetail fins and twin linear aerospike engines

 

Since nothing in the game exists until you make it, these 3-axis hinges had to be made to connect the cars

Because the cars are not on-rails, a flexible connection between the cars is required to make them work. The solution I have devised to suit this need is below. The left side is the front car and the right side is the rear car.

 

A video of the roller coaster in progress is below. You will notice that the train does not come to a stop before the third launch like it should. This is because I have not programmed the brakes yet.

 

Edited April 26, 2015 by A.J.