Kessler Syndrome

[DrMarlboro]

I'm sure by this point we are all aware of what Kessler syndrome is, but I dont think many of us have actually experienced it in KSP since debris Just flies through objects that are not the active vessel. In my current save i have been terrible about making sure LKO stays clean, and I just couldn't be bothered to delete any of it making for a very interesting experience today as one of my ships narrowly escaped a debris field.

And this got me wondering whether there was a mod that actually allowed for collisions to happen when not actively loaded and creating more debris just like the Kessler effect predicts. not because i want to have an orbit filled with dangerous debris, but because this would give a new importance and incentive to de-orbiting my junk. This encounter made the whole idea really sink in and become quite frightening thinking about all the other debris i have in lower orbits and what implications i would incur if they WERE to collide with each other.

So with all that said, show me your deadly encounters and any precautions you take to prevent them. and if you know a mod like what im looking for go ahead and share it - even though i highly doubt there is one.

in two of the shots you can see junk fly by just after last minute maneuvers.

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[Bill Phil]

I'mml pretty sure I have no persistent debris...

[seyss]

To get Kessler Syndrome in KSP, Squad must first solve the Low FPS Syndrome

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Oldy but Goldy

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Edited September 19, 2015 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[DrMarlboro]

Oldy but Goldy

http://imgur.com/a/B6BII

Jesus.... thats quite terrifying.

[mikegarrison]

One difference is that KSP ships may break up into their component parts, but those parts don't break up. Whereas in real life, if two satellites collide they break up into lots and lots and lots of very small pieces. Think shotgun pellets rather than a bullet.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Jesus.... thats quite terrifying.

Imagine the partcount and the resulting lag during Launch. Makes it even worse

[richfiles]

i can only imagine what the tracking station list is like...

[wossname]

I experienced kessler syndrome the other day when I fatfingered the "Z" key instead of "A" while docking two very large ships with big engines.

[Frozen_Heart]

I usually just delete debris now, and on most flights I don't leave any.

On my first KSP save though... just a huge mass in every orbit. My station would narrowly miss every few mins.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I usually just delete debris now, and on most flights I don't leave any.

On my first KSP save though... just a huge mass in every orbit. My station would narrowly miss every few mins.

There is a nice mod to make debris even more visible.

Distant Object Enhancement

It gives you little dots in the sky for debris and Ships so you can see them pass overhead when you sit on a moon or the launchpad. It even gives you the Name of the vessel on mouseover if you want.

Looks like this:

PLUS! It even Shows you dots in the sky where the other planets are

Edited September 19, 2015 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[rockbloodystar]

Oldy but Goldy

http://imgur.com/a/B6BII

Oh the humanity!

[2theMoon]

Would love to see a video of the Kessler bomb!

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Oh the humanity!

Kerbality?

[DrMarlboro]

I experienced kessler syndrome the other day when I fatfingered the "Z" key instead of "A" while docking two very large ships with big engines.

i can imagine. this is debris left over from a space station that exploded due to some overheating docking ports and since i have debris tracking off i had forgotten it was still out there. My LKO isnt much better as i frequently see old fuel tanks when entering an equatorial orbit but they are never close enough to cause a problem.

[Pax Kerbana]

Kessler Syndrome is defined by the equation XGh/Do=F, where:

Do: Debris

Gh: GPU speed (MHz)

X: Ram coeificient

and

F is the machine defined FPS that results in sub-par game performance.

[Tay_T]

Kessler Syndrome is defined by the equation XGh/Do=F, where:

Do: Debris

Gh: GPU speed (MHz)

X: Ram coeificient

and

F is the machine defined FPS that results in sub-par game performance.

Pfft, I guess so. That pretty much gets the point across that having legitimate Kessler Syndrome in KSP would be a nightmare for some computers. Then again, distant objects tend to not have any lag unless they're fairly large and within the switch-over (dunno, is there actually a proper word for that? where you press ] to switch ships or to another object) range.

If you really want a fun ride, put one of those Kessler Bombs or something that will intentionally overheat and explode. Orbit it in the opposite direction of a station but in the same exact position above an object, and blow that, go to the station and get your Kerbals out for some popcorn (kerbcorn?) and see if they can dodge it. I guess that's the KSP version of dodgeball, actually.

[Deutherius]

... within the switch-over (dunno, is there actually a proper word for that? where you press ] to switch ships or to another object) range.

I think it's usually called physics range.

On topic: My career mode equatorial LKO looks like an asteroid belt. Mostly leftover capsules from rescue contracts (>50) and overengineered booster stages that made it to orbit (also about 50). I made it a rule to not delete any debris from the tracking station, because it just feels cheap.

There is one curious case though, there is a lonely 0.625 stack separator left in a sub-orbital trajectory, something like 40 km Pe and 180 km Ap. I tried looking at it as it passed through the atmo, and all it did was increase the Ap each pass. Are these physicless?

[Kobymaru]

There is one curious case though, there is a lonely 0.625 stack separator left in a sub-orbital trajectory, something like 40 km Pe and 180 km Ap. I tried looking at it as it passed through the atmo, and all it did was increase the Ap each pass. Are these physicless?

I had the same thing! Atmosphere didn't do much for it, but the orbit seems unstable if you look at the precise numbers.

Even if it's physicless, drag should still be calculated if I understand correctly.

[Mister Kerman]

Hey is there a point to manually de orbiting debris? I generally don't leave any, but there's the odd time where a decoupler/stage under it, somehow ends up in an orbit where I need to watch it aerobrake like 15 times before the F'er starts hitting atmosphere thick enough to sink back down where it belongs.

I usually do this while I wait for maneuvers on missions. A lot of the time I figure it's wasted effort. Am I literally just wasting time doing this?

[Johno]

Oldy but Goldy

http://imgur.com/a/B6BII

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

(Almost literally in this case)

[Skorpychan]

Mindful of it, I'm trying to design lifters that don't drop tanks and engines in LKO. Otherwise, I'm going to use a craft with a Klaw, an engine, and not a lot else to try and deorbit some of it.

Either ions or just an Lv-909.

[Gargamel]

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

(Almost literally in this case)

Soooo.... this got me thinking.

They say during a major meteor impact event, the debris falling back to the planet would ignite fires all over the place and raise the atmospheric temperature a significant amount.

Sooooo... let's say you made a big enough kessler bomb. Took it to a high enough orbit, but with a low enough pe to re-enter, to carry some serious momentum and fired off your bomb as you approached re-entry. Could you have a similar affect on a smaller area, such as a target city? Or would the energy required to get said vehicle to orbit negate any energy you added/returned to the planet? Or would the different types of energies involved (fuel is potential, re-entry/impact is thermal/kinetic) not be offset as they were stored differently?

Just a random thought, probably troll physics at play, but a thought none the less.

[Dnaha]

Closest any piece of debris has come to my craft was around 4km. It was from one of my moon missions I think so it was traveling incredibly fast. I so far have around 300+ pieces of debris orbiting Kerbin and most of it is in an equatorial since most of my launches have been ones with 0º inclination.

[FungusForge]

In my early KSP days I was launching a rocket and had a LKO probe pass nearly 100m off my nose. Worse still it was back when my takeoff profile was 'turn right at space' so it was moving 2 km/s relative to my rocket.