Atmospheric "debris" destruction distance

[Turdsandwitch]

So there i was flying my aeroplane around kerbin droping science probes in different biomes willy nilly, after an hour of flying and 10 probes later i went to swap to some of them and they were gone, is there a mod or setting to increase the distance before debris, probes etc are unloaded from the game?

[Vicomt]

If they disappeared, it's likely that they didn't have either a probe core of some kind, or batteries with electric charge or some kind of power generation. without these two things, KSP classes them as debris, and removes them.

[magnemoe]

Cuttoff distance is 23 km I think so if the probes has not landed then you are 23 km away they will be removed. this will happen if they have probe core or not. 
This can easy happen with an fast plane as they will decent slowly with parachutes. 

it would be stupid not to have probe core on them as else you can not transmit data. 

[THX1138]

7 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Cuttoff distance is 23 km I think so if the probes has not landed then you are 23 km away they will be removed. this will happen if they have probe core or not. 
This can easy happen with an fast plane as they will decent slowly with parachutes. 

it would be stupid not to have probe core on them as else you can not transmit data. 

That's just the kind of stupid we're looking for at KSP!

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, THX1138 said:

That's just the kind of stupid we're looking for at KSP!

Thinking of the 8 rovers I wanted to land at Mun easter eggs or the two Laythe landers who all missed probe cores

[Turdsandwitch]

8 hours ago, Vicomt said:

If they disappeared, it's likely that they didn't have either a probe core of some kind, or batteries with electric charge or some kind of power generation. without these two things, KSP classes them as debris, and removes them.

they all had probe cores, batteries, antennas and solarpanels, i guess i have to wait for them to land before i get too far away. I even switched to one of the probes and waited for it to land then tried to switch back to the aeroplane but it was gone.....with poor jeb inside it RIP

Edited July 13, 2016 by Turdsandwitch

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, Turdsandwitch said:

they all had probe cores, batteries, antennas and solarpanels, i guess i have to wait for them to land before i get too far away. I even switched to one of the probes and waited for it to land then tried to switch back to the aeroplane but it was gone.....with poor jeb inside it RIP

Fly relatively slow and low, you might also want to play a bit with the parachute settings opening them late, partial opening too. 
Let say the probe falls with 3 m/s then parachute is fully open at 6-900 meter probe will use 20-30 seconds to land, now add time before they reach parachute opening height. 
Still this surprises me a bit, say probe uses 60 seconds to reach ground, you have to fly at 400 m/s to get 24km in 60 seconds, if you fly subsonic you should be safe.