Diseased Imaginings: Getting Atop the VAB the Hard Way

[Geschosskopf]

Well, with the VAB's renovation adding a big landing pad on top, naturally I had to give it a try. But landing on buildings with rockets, VTOLs, and helicopters is BORING. Been there, done that. So I set myself a challenge to get up there WITHOUT the use of any sort of flying machine.

Digging deep into my collection of odd parts, I noticed something I'd never had a use for before, the "Ball Bearing" from TT's Modular Multiwheels. This is a Damned Robotics Rotator that's had its motor stripped out so it's just a free-spinning joint. This insired me to create a trebuchet-type Kerbalflinger

BEHOLD!

This monstrosity is basically a small probe core with a long string of box girders below and small fuel tank and radial engine above. It has a Ball Bearing on each side "more or less" on the arm's CoM, which are connected to the towers. Capsules at the bottoms of the towers hold Kerbals as they work up their courage to take a ride.

Here Jeb has left the capsule and strapped himself upside down into the lawn chair at the end of the arm. At his back is a radial parachute and under the seat is a decoupler. The spotlight arrays were added just to adjust the balance of the arm but they do make a nice light show at night .

Once ready, Jeb fires up the radial engine and the arm begins to spin. Here's the windup....

And here's the pitch!

It's in the dirt well short of the plate. Ball 1.

Needless to say, this took MANY tries to get even half-way right. The whole machine is quite elastic so if you get it spinning too fast, Jeb gets splattered on the ground between the towers. Or, because it's not QUITE balanced, it will eventually shake itself to pieces if you let it run too long. So the trick is to get it going at the right speed and QUICKLY hit the decoupler before anything too bad happens, but you have to time it right to get the necessary altitude and distance. There are quite a few Jeb-shaped craters between the Launchpad and the VAB now, and also some Jeb-sized holes in the VAB wall .

But eventually I started to get the hang of it.. Oh, so close!

Finally, I got one in the strike zone. Not on the landing pad but all the stairways and ladders up there work so Jeb was able to climb the rest of the way himself. Close enough .

So Jeb eventually reached the landing pad and looked back just in time to see the Kerbalflinger self-destruct back at the launch pad .

[ironfist221]

This is probably the greatest use of bearings I have ever seen XD

Props to your creativity!