The "problem" with space debris...

[JimK]

Howdy,

so short question: What to do with all those space debris.

Yeah i know, i can delete them, but this is uncool.

Much better is a "kerbal cleaning program". So is there any laser stuff to destroy them? Or Garbag-collector or what ever?^^

Thanks & Greeetz

[Platofan2]

Watch This Video

[JiWint]

I've found a fun way when I was bored.Attach two small fuel tanks with engines.

And when you come closer to debris,turn those engines on and detach fuel tanks.It works like rockets! Works best in Space

[Somerled]

A direct answer: Tosh Sunbeam mod. I don't know how well this works in .21.

[Enigma179]

I use kerbal attachment system and a small ship; pull out the electromagnets, winch the debris up, then fire into an orbit that will crash the debris, before releasing it and readjusting to the proper speed. If the debris is big it's super hard to control but for the most part it works just fine.

[NGTOne]

I use kerbal attachment system and a small ship; pull out the electromagnets, winch the debris up, then fire into an orbit that will crash the debris, before releasing it and readjusting to the proper speed. If the debris is big it's super hard to control but for the most part it works just fine.

You can combine this with something like the cargo bays from B9 - grapple the debris, pull it into your bay, and put it on deorbit trajectory. Then open your bay, release, and re-orbit. Rinse and repeat until you run out of gas.

[annallia]

I took an alternate route myself. Built a space plane (ok so more rocket than plane but I suck at getting them off kerbin) and used small rockets to act as missiles and used the debris as target practice.

Doesn't really get rid of much debris, actually adds to it but it was fun anyway.

[Somerled]

Anyone try a stock tug? A rocket with a large flat plate in front, line up as best you can with the target's center of mass, and push it into re-entry.

I used to deorbit my final lifter stage like that, but that was a basic orange tank+rocket. It's super tricky, but cool when it works.

[technicalfool]

The non-mod route would be to latch onto the debris using lander legs, and drag it down into the atmosphere.

The mod route would be Lazor Systems, and Lazor Powered Weaponry with its 7km-range Sunbeam lazor, and 90km-range (and 2.5km blast radius) cruise missiles. If you have a nice speedy CPU, you can even use lazor systems to up the render range massively.. kinda required if you're using Cruises to blow things up. Not so much with sunbeam lazors and smaller missiles.

It's also kinda funny to drop a cruise missile at one end of the spaceplane runway and watch it knock a rover head over heels at the other end of the runway. Damn, that is some big explosive yield. Great for annihalating any debris in a kilometre radius and pretty much blasting anything else either into the atmosphere or into an escape velocity!

[Geschosskopf]

Whack-a-Kerbal is great for clearing debris Or anything else.

[JimK]

Thanks for all the ideas. Sounds great, i think i will try them all over time.

[Tripzter]

What is whack a kerbal? How does it work?

[CalculusWarrior]

What is whack a kerbal? How does it work?

You can find it in the debug menu (right ALT + F12). You can set a bunch of different parameters for an object that you can fire at ingame ships and kerbal by using the middle mouse button. It can be great fun, but be careful you don't use it near anything you want to preserve, like a space station.

[KerbMav]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/tac-self-destruct-2/

Just find a way to let it attach to the debris - free docking port or somehow using KAS to make the package part of the debris "vessel".

[maccollo]

I did this once, but since I prefer to play vanilla I wanted to come up with a stock solution. So I built a simple nuclear powered craft with a giant scoop at the front consisting of those flat panels. Then I would rendezvous with the debris, catch it with the scoop and kill the orbit. Once the periapsis was under 16 km I would back away from the debris, turn around, and raise it again.

[aceassasin]

You can attach probe cores to debris if it has an engine and fuel, and deorbit it remotely.

[GavinZac]

I did this once, but since I prefer to play vanilla I wanted to come up with a stock solution. So I built a simple nuclear powered craft with a giant scoop at the front consisting of those flat panels. Then I would rendezvous with the debris, catch it with the scoop and kill the orbit. Once the periapsis was under 16 km I would back away from the debris, turn around, and raise it again.

24km should be enough, I think; that's around the orbit at which KSP assumes a non-focused craft will crash.

[magnemoe]

Drop the almost empty stages tanks at the end of circulate. If you might have useful fuel left give them an probe core and two small solar panels in addition to docking port or kas node to use it. leave a lite fuel to deorbit.

For stages or tanks dropped during burn to Mun or interplanetary give them an small deorbit stage with an probe core, a 45 liter tank and an 48-S7. As their Ap is high it just cost an few m/s to put Pe in atmosphere. Use the seperator to avoid the small tank to get emptied. Drop the rest before aerobraking or modify path so you impact before raising Pe and circulates.

[petrichorAM]

I use kerbal attachment system and a small ship; pull out the electromagnets, winch the debris up, then fire into an orbit that will crash the debris, before releasing it and readjusting to the proper speed. If the debris is big it's super hard to control but for the most part it works just fine.

Lol that's put the image into my head of the scene in Serenity during the 'end battle' when the Reaver ship grapples the Alliance fighter and flings around like a shotput!

[Mr Shifty]

If you're shooting for realism (and if you aren't, why not just use the Space Tracker to delete the debris), you should not be lasering or blowing up the debris. This simply creates more debris. Capturing it and then de-orbiting it is the way to go.