How do YOU manage your debris?

[Godot]

On the one hand I try to avoid debris in Kerbin orbit, by having my stages set up in a way, that my last stage (before the interplanetary spaceship stage) either gets decoupled when my PE still is below Kerbins surface or at the time when I am about to leave Kerbins orbit (so that the orbit is already rather eccentric).

Usually I succeed with this, so that I have more problems with the debris orbiting my spaceship testing ground (also called Mun by some Kerbals)

Therefore, on the other hand, I try to avoid too much debris at sensible orbits of my target location by decoupling stages before my orbit is circularized.

Aside from this I sometimes clean up my orbits if the amount of debris has grown too large and affects system performance (formerly with help of the Lazor mod ... now just via Mission Control ... didn´t have to do it since a long time, however)

[magnemoe]

As of 0.20, it's now entirely possible to make reusable (leave-the-rocket-stage-with-some-fuel-on-board-and-power-land-it-back-to-the-planet - TL;DR: Falcon Style) rockets without extensively redesigning your lifters, thanks to the new 1m and 2m probe cores.

yes, my last missions with 0.19 was totally reusable launchers. Typically reusable boosters dropped before gravity turn and upper stage who either returned to spaceport or was capable of landing on next continent.

Then putting thing in orbit I either leave the engine on, if you drop it like in space station parts add an probe core and some small solar panels and you can deorbit it.

Then going to Mun or outward, either drop main stage before circulating or keep it on until you are almost to the Mun, no point of doing an 200 m/s burn with main stage on an Mun mission, if you take it most of the way to Mun, leave 50m/s dV fuel and have an probe core and some small solar panels and you can deorbit it without problems, drop transfer stage during deorbit burn or later. on interplanetary missions you hardly need to drop stuff before this.

[Mephane]

Originally, I wanted to have unlimited debris on, deal with anything major and maybe ignore the small stuff (like stack separator rings floating around), but eventually I found all the accumulated debris too much of a performance killer, so I eventually turned it completely off.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane

[GoDores]

I try to have all boost stages remain suborbital, and if my payload isn't performing the final orbital insertion burn itself I have a probe core on the stage that is, so it can deorbit itself. My interplanetary module is reusable and doesn't stage. But I still leave debris off since the game doesn't always handle it properly. For example, I'll commonly eject my last boost stage in a 300km x 35km orbit and then circularize, but the game will happily leave the debris in that orbit forever without decaying even though it's in the atmosphere and should crash fairly quickly.

[Mephane]

For example, I'll commonly eject my last boost stage in a 300km x 35km orbit and then circularize, but the game will happily leave the debris in that orbit forever without decaying even though it's in the atmosphere and should crash fairly quickly.

Atmosphere is not simulated unless you are within a certain range of the affected object. An easy way is just to add a probe core to the part that is going to end up as debris in a decaying orbit, when you have some time, just switch to that object and fast forward until it crashes down.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane

[Dizzle]

If think I'll have extra fuel in a stage, I leave it with a small probe core so I can de-orbit it with what's left.

[Epthelyn]

If possible, or I can be bothered to do it, I try and get into a [desired altitude] x 30km or so orbit around Kerbin, drop the tanks or whatever and then burn the rest of the way on whatever is in the next stage. Sometimes that's just using spare RCS if I don't need it later.

Pre-0.20 I actually cared about debris because every time I looked at the map screen I was reminded that I'm terrible at actually clearing up. Some cleaning up became good rendezvous practice but usually ended up resulting in more debris for various reasons.

Now I don't mind so much; I can show everything in space except the debris yet still have it flying around. Since the chances of actually crashing into a piece of random debris are pretty slim I'll just leave it there. Besides, it's realistic - I'm pretty sure NASA can't account for every speck of paint travelling at 2km/s in LEO.

[Geschosskopf]

If the debris doesn't re-enter on its own, I go to the tracking station, select it, and hit the abort button. This instantly vaporizes it. It would be cool if somebody made a mod someday where when you did this, you got an external view of the tracking station's dish aiming at the debris and then a Deathstar-type beam shooting out of it, then cut to the piece of debris as the beam destroys it .

[UNSC]

I like to use it to look back at what I have done.

@ person above me. What happens when you do this to an active mission? O.O

[Markus Reese]

Most main boosters that are used post orbit have small secondary engines and probe control for a guided return when main boosters done.

[Geschosskopf]

@ person above me. What happens when you do this to an active mission? O.O

It's like hitting END FLIGHT. Game over for that mission.

[UNSC]

I was talking about the mod you suggested

[AmpsterMan]

I have a very simple solution since 0.20.... I don't

[WhiteWeasel]

Now that it doesn't clutter up my tracking station map unlike before .20 I don't really care that much anymore.

[FlamedSteak]

Has anyone actually suffered a debris strike yet? I see it whizzing by every now and again, but not anywhere near what I'd consider a close call.

[Krahazik]

I use the Laszer system to S/D debris. Although for my communication sattelites I usually drop th elast stage while everything is s till on a crash course back to Kerbin and then have the sat execute the circular orbit burn after wards.

[Jarin]

Considering how much work it is to intentionally contact an object in space, it's probably not an issue. But I'm the paranoid type, so...

[technicalfool]

Mostly, my lifter stages are all suborbital and there's only the orbital insertion stage that gets into an orbital velocity.

If possible, I'll stick an extra command pod in to deorbit the insertion stage with. That or get into orbit, do a quick retro burn to go suborbital, jettison the insertion stage, get back to prograde and burn like mad before the payload burns up with the lifter.

If debris is unavoidable, then it's unavoidable. It stays there. Maybe at some point I'll make a trash collector!

[Rozza_15]

To all you "OCD" players out there; strive for realism. Very few space programs actually deorbit debris (none) even though I'm sure a few of you will prove me wrong. Space debris is one of my favourite parts of KSP. All those pretty flames...

[AfailingHORSE]

Before .20 I did not have persistent debris on. Now I don't care and just leave debris everywhere, unless I am testing a design whose only time in atmosphere is when I launch it, then I hyper edit it to the Sun on a sub-orbital path.

[allmappedout]

I leave it where the dice fall. I try and deorbit where possible, but don't worry about it too much. The only time I do (or when I cheat and End the debris' flight), is when it's dangerously close to an existing station or ship; otherwise I just see it as a hazard of space flight! I like the fact that when I launch up I occasionally see odds and ends whizzing overhead...I don't know why I put so many small grey diamonds into orbit though....

[DChurchill]

Originally, I kept it all around and pretty much left it where it was. Now, I just delete them from the Tracking Station, just keep clutter from affecting the game's performance. I keep a few around, mostly stuff on the surface of planets, to have something to visit later on.

Since the new probe cores came with .2, I've taken to adding these to stages so I can de-orbit "spent" boosters and such. Putting a small fuel tank in the stack and turning it off before launch makes this pretty easy.

[Aqua667]

I just leave it there. If there's too much I might delete them via the tracking station.

I found out a way to abuse mods and delete debris earlier:

First attach a low profile modded part (Like mechjeb, or make a modded strut or something)to all your lower stages (Not the payloads!) and when you want to delete all your debris, remove the mod and go to the tracking station.

[inigma]

I wonder if anyone from NORADs Space Command center plays KSP, and wishes their tracking system had a red x End Mission button.

[XxDaSTaRXx]

I simply just put docking ports on most of my debris or rocket stages that will end up in orbit (according to the flight-plan) and take a space tug (Similar to Scott Manley's design for RSP), put it in a interplanetary orbit, so I can deal with it later because I'm too lazy.