Debris removal program

[icekatze]

hi hi

I don't know if it is just me, but I like to keep my orbital space clean. It takes a bit of effort, and some rockets that are not as efficient as they could be, but I try to make sure that spent rocket stages and debris in general always falls back down to the ground. Sometimes, however, it is just not reasonable to do so. So, how do we remove debris from orbit? Well, we need to build a dedicated debris removal space ship. (Which may or may not have been inspired in some part by Planetes.)

Using no mods of any kind, I quickly discovered how difficult is is to balance thrust on a non-symmetrical craft. Even with action groups for activating and deactivating trim thrusters, there were problems from the very start.

I finally managed to get my first attempt into orbit, after many aborted launch attempts. But once there, I found that it was still a challenge to properly balance the thrust. I might get the thrust balanced, but within seconds of burning, the balance would shift against me again.

The solution, of course, was obvious. If the space craft wasn't going to work properly, it was an excellent opportunity to test the emergency abort system!

I may have generated some extra debris to clean up in the process, but the emergency de-orbiting system worked like a charm at least. I'm pleased to report that the escape pod saved the lives of the daring kerbonauts. All I had to do is make sure the boosters were pointed retrograde and it had more than enough delta-v to intersect my orbit with the atmosphere.

I had to go back to the drawing board and stop worrying so much about making a cool looking ship, and worry about making a functional ship instead. Sure, it will mean a smaller budget of cool-points for the program, but having a ship that doesn't crash and burn on a regular basis is a must.

The new ship worked like a charm though. Here's a picture of the first successful capture of orbital debris in the history of my own space program. You can see that everyone on-board is super excited about it.

Tanzor Kerman goes EIVA (Extra-Inter-Vehicular-Activity) through a pressure hatch in the cargo bay to inspect the piece of debris and ensure that it is, in fact, debris. Mission control was a little bit worried that it was a coffee spill on their radar display.

De-orbiting the debris turned out to be really simple. I just burned retrograde a few seconds, opened the cargo bay and used the RCS thrusters to push the debris out of the cargo bay, then I turned around and burned prograde for a few seconds. It didn't take much fuel, and I barely lost any altitude. Now all I need to do is establish some kind of orbital refueling infrastructure...

[Delrey]

What's the craft in the 4th picture?

[icekatze]

hi hi

The craft in the 4th picture is the debris collector's command pod, which doubles as an emergency re-entry pod. It is based around the Mk1-2 Command Pod. Once the command pod is decoupled from its housing, the Kerbonauts can trigger four Sepratron I's that have been attached radially to the hull. After entering the atmosphere, a pair of Mark2-R Radial-Mount Parachutes can be deployed for a soft landing.

The four RV-105 RCS Thruster Blocks are leftovers from the debris craft's main RCS system, but they can potentially use some of the command pod's 30 units of monopropellant to quickly reach a retrograde orientation, but on the second debris collector model, the front RCS thrusters were moved onto the pod's housing instead of the pod itself.

[Sampa]

De-orbiting the debris turned out to be really simple. I just burned retrograde a few seconds, opened the cargo bay and used the RCS thrusters to push the debris out of the cargo bay, then I turned around and burned prograde for a few seconds. It didn't take much fuel, and I barely lost any altitude. Now all I need to do is establish some kind of orbital refueling infrastructure...

Huh, you are using a trick that Felbourn/Bob Fitch used when using Bill's Catcher in his Project Gateway series!

[Delrey]

Oh I was viewing it incorrectly. It looked like a flat version.

[Tex_NL]

Few versions back I had a large orbital construction yard (Extra planetary Launchpads) with the ability to recycle material. I had a ship called Toy Box collecting debris and hauling it back for recycling. I even had a two person Fishbone to grab the debris and move it into the Toy Box.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Sampa: I hadn't seen the Project Gateway series, but that is some seriously impressive large scale stuff. I can't remember the first time I pulled a maneuver like that, but I think it was with a lander on some body that didn't have an atmosphere. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough delta v for the mission, so used the orbiter for the initial de-orbit burn.

Tex_NL: That does sound impressive. I thought about trying to build a Fishbone of my own, but I'm not sure if there is any practical way to do it without mods. At least, I haven't figured out a way to do it yet.

[Sampa]

lol! it's pretty good since he builds the ENTIRE ISS and all of its components himself!