mechanical things - iris

[klond]

 Airlock, doorway, camera lens, eyeball, whatever, it's a circle that opens in a neat way.

 Here's the gif I referenced while building.

 

 Here's the terrible youtube vid.

 

I really did start with just a ring.  It's still in there, but it's no longer the root part.

 

 'Did a mockup first.

 

 'Chose a root part and got a general shape started.  Saw what could fit inside.  Tried to get 1 door to work first before I continued.

 

Here's some of the guts.  Had a few false starts on the mechanics of it, had to quit and sleep on it a few times.  Thought about it while at work.  The heavy cubes are counterweights to help some of the doors with Kerbin's gravity.  It was really quite particular to get the doors to close square, without much gap, and without sliding past each other (still happens rarely).

 

 Having a giant hole in center means no auto-symmetry for most things, just hand-placement.  Ring actually does spin just like in the gif - should be able to see it in the video.  8 door panels - 2 rows of 4.  No toothed gears; I spin the ring with an airbrake, also in the video.  Since these parts are no longer solid, stuff should really fit thru the door.  In fact, the opening of the iris is as big as this ring's hole.  I have not put anything through, or taken it to space, so if anyone does, please reply.

 Not sure the craft has much use.  I know @Majorjim! would like to see my efforts go towards space and vehicles with purpose and utility, so I'm gonna mark this down as "fancy space station door" to qualify.

 

 KerbalX

Edited July 6, 2018 by klond

[selfish_meme]

Oh I think I could find a cinematic use for that! Excellent stuff!

[Klapaucius]

I saw this on KerbalX. Really astounding work. It shows me just how much I have to learn :-)

[Kernel Kraken]

Ooh, nice! I need to figure out how to engineer with rocket parts because I want to replicate this on a massive scale...