The Shamrock

[sal_vager]

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Kodger stepped back from the factory\'s antique winch to admire his latest rocket, glinting in the last rays sneaking in through the high dusty windows.

'Now that\'s a job well done if I do say so myself' he said, his voice thick with pride.

'Who are you talking to guv?'

Kodger turned to see Kanley walking in through the wide factory doors 'I was talking about this here rocket, not too anyone, just in general like, anyway where have you been, not seen you since lunch?'

'I been checking the stock out in the yard, the boss said to keep an eye on stuff, can\'t have the Flooyd boys nicking our designs he says, they pass off our pipes as their own he says, they just paints over our logo\'s and stuff'

'Yeah well what\'d you expect from a sewage company?'

Kanley looked confused for a moment 'Ain\'t we a sewage company as well guv?'

'No we ain\'t boy, we\'re a sewerage and pipes company, big difference, for eg, we makes the pipes that moves the stuff, Flooyd just moves the stuff, an they put on airs'

'Airs guv?'

Kodger gritted his teeth 'Yeah, airs, they call themselves a \'research laboratory of dynamic fluid flow\' when everyone knows they\'s just two lads in a shed wot moves brown water around'

'Oh right guv, so have you finished that rocket you were workin on, only it looks like you only just started?'

'Cheeky, it\'s finished, I\'m really happy with the way it\'s turned out to tell you the truth, my smallest orbiter yet'

'You\'re telling me, its tiny, no way that can get to orbit'

The old Kerbal just shook his head 'Shows what you know boy, I did all the mathmaticals myself on the side of this pipe here, it\'ll fly and it\'ll come back down again safely'

Kanley looked up, though not very far, at the new rocket 'So what\'s it called?'

'That I haven\'t figured out yet'

Looking at the tiny crafts three fuel tanks, Kanley suddenly became excited 'Oh Oh I know what you should call it! that stuff out in the yard with the three leaves an stuff!'

'No need to get in such a kerfluffle Kanley, you mean the clover?

'No no that other stuff! the stuff on St Kirish day with the three leaves, an you have to drink kuinness by law!'

'Shamrocks? but that is clover you plonker, you know what boy, that name ain\'t half bad'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Shamrock.

An all-stock, lightweight, single stage orbiter from Ker-Flow-Full pipeworks.

My smallest orbiter, I know three tank craft have already been done but I had to have pipes on mine

This tiny ship will get you into orbit with enough fuel left to bring you back down again, all without stages or boosters, but she does prefer careful flying.

A two tank ship has been done as well by foamyesque, but his was not survivable, at least not with my flying, this ship is guaranteed keep your Kerbals alive*

Have fun flying

*Guarantee subject to terms and conditions, void where applicable.

Updated: Moved all pics to imgur as they got corrupted with the server move.

Click the Spoiler for the pics of the flight.

The Shamrock at dusk.

Liftoff!

Pitchover at 12k.

And again at 24k.

Circularizing the orbit.

Quiet darkness.

She can never reach the moon.

This is about as high as is safe to go.

De-orbiting with the dawn.

Goodbye Shamrock.

Heading for a safe splashdown near the coast.

[Exovian]

Minimalist rocketry at its finest. A tip of the hat to you.

[ping111]

I use this setup. It\'s called the Gumball.

However, mine has ejectable radial tanks, which does make it heavier and harder to fly, but I don\'t mind all too much

Cheers

[sal_vager]

Gumball? damn I wish I\'d thought of that name, I should have had Kanley chewing gum

Radial tanks wouldn\'t do me much good as there\'s no central tank to run the engines from once the radials are empty, the three you see are all you have.

I like my ships short and sweet.

[Exovian]

Wow! I just got the Shamrock (which is, frankly, a better name than Gumball) into orbit. How would you compare the difficulty of getting this into orbit to, say, flying the Munar Skif on a full mission?

[sal_vager]

I\'d say the Shamrock is cutting it pretty close as an orbiter and definitely isn\'t a beginners ship, you must have seen how little fuel you had left once in orbit

The Munar Skif actually started as an attempt to beat my own Little Sipper 9 tank Munar lander, as I thought someone might try to outdo me if it were possible, but it just didn\'t have the fuel reserves, as a Munar orbiter though the Skif is a joy to fly.

But if you\'re talking about landing the Skif on the Mun and flying back on a single RCS tank and 3 thrusters, then you\'re in for some hard work conserving your fuel, its doable but I\'d definitely call the Shamrock the easier ship.

[Twinky827]

What\'s the story behind your three characters are they Bob, Jeb, and Bill\'s counterparts or what?

[sal_vager]

Nah I just made them up, because I use pipes a lot I thought I\'d start a pipe factory for KSP, it\'s all completely unofficial though.

Now I feel I should have a story with any new ship, it just helps add something more than the usual 'Here\'s my rocket' posts.

Kigwig was just Bigwig at first, I added the K to make him Kerbally, so after that I added K\'s to Stanley and Rodger, the three are the only Kerbals working at Ker-Flow-Full pipeworks, a tiny competitor to Flooyd.

Kanley is obsessed with pipes and even lives in a pipe in the yard somewhere, Kodger is obviously the brains as well as being a \'set in his ways\' traditionalist who vary rarely gets flustered, while Kigwig is enthusiastic and tries his best to run the place but really doesn\'t know how.

It\'s just my little contribution along with the tiny ships, everyone else was making these huge rockets that took ages to get to orbit and slowed down my computer so I decided to see if a small rocket could get to the Mun.

I thought I was doing well with a 15 tank ship until another player, Gruntzilla, showed me his 10 tank ship, after that I made the Little Sipper and the Munar Skif.

There\'s talk of smaller engines and fuel tanks coming in the 0.14 release, I\'ll see what I can make with them

[Twinky827]

I dunno about your smaller engines I have 0.14 but it\'s unofficial but there aren\'t any tiny engines

[ping111]

I dunno about your smaller engines I have 0.14 but it\'s unofficial but there aren\'t any tiny engines

0.14 isn\'t out yet, smart guy.

[Twinky827]

whats the version with landing legs then?

[sal_vager]

whats the version with landing legs then?

The version you are playing is the experimental pre-0.14 release, it\'s not the actual release, there will be new stock components in the next version.

[Mackilroy]

0.14 is out now… though I can\'t check to see what changes are there as the .zip file is corrupted.

[Exovian]

Here\'s the Shamrock Extended: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=10042.0