[Question] Dealing with Space Junk

[jonathan_92]

So some of you may have pretty crowded sky's by now, what with dozens of spent stages up in orbit. I've heard a couple of stories on the forums about flights being crashed by space debris slamming into them at a few hundred m/s. So besides setting persistent debris to 0 or making a new save game, what are some ways you guys deal with space debris?

EDIT:

Ok ok, actual suggestion now. I know squad hates weapons....but... could we be allowed some "kinetic impacters" to shoot down all that floating debris? Maybe an automated laser system to disentegrate things that get too close to your ship? (the idea being that you can't control the lasers yourself, beyond an on/off button. Therefore they can't be used for offense)

Plasma shielding? Ablative armor? I'm sure micro meteorites are going to happen at some point...

Perhaps it won't be an issue for several more updates...

Edited August 23, 2012 by jonathan_92
Made it an actual suggestion!

[sal_vager]

This looks like a question, and it should be in How-To, I'll move it, but you really should search, or at least have a look at a few pages in the How-To board, as this question is asked a lot

[Bluejayek]

You realize of course that in reality blowing up an orbiting peice of space junk would just turn it into lots of orbiting peices of space junk that would be more dangerous? Having a laser on a ship to 'blow up' passing space debris would just make it shatter into little bits that are more likely to hit you anyways. I imagine this doesn't exist in KSP currently, as it would be computationally prohibitive to try to model the thousands or hundreds of thousands of peices that would result.

There is also no gaurentee that micrometeorites will be in the game in the future. It is possible they would introduce too much physics calculation to be viable, as well as introducing an extra complexity and the 'random failure' element that many people dislike. However, ablative shielding in the context of re-entry heat will be implemented sometime in the future, and perhaps something similar could be done to protect against small space debris.

[Zephram Kerman]

Here's one post that I wrote a while back, when someone else asked the same thing.

debris reduction and mitigation

At the end of that post is a link to another thread about techniques to prevent leaving things in your sky.

Cool avatar, btw!

[jonathan_92]

Thanks, for the time being, my debris solution is SSTO's, but stock ones are really hard to make lol.

[Accelerando]

I'm planning to create a Planetes-style solution to this problem, using small space tugs and one-Kerbal or uncrewed vehicles to deorbit debris. Then again, I don't really have a terribly large amount of stuff to get rid of for the time being...

[maxstar]

What about an air cannon to push it away?

[pokeman]

The best solution is prevention I try to ensure that all my spent stages are timed so that they will either fall to Kerbin or my destination and be destroyed.

[Elios]

deorbiting things would be best

mostly keep stuff out of your main orbital tacks 0, 6, 51 dec etc using a retro rocket mod can help too along with proper staging

[Yamacrane]

I think you could just set the persistent debris to zero, if you aren't against that. Otherwise, I would do what pokeman said, keep the space junk in atmosphere, or have it blow up

[CosmicX1]

How about tiny solid rocket boosters that could be attached to stages that would be otherwise be left in orbit? Kind of like RCS thrusters that stay even after a stage is ejected until they run out of fuel.

[comham]

I'm planning to create a Planetes-style solution to this problem, using small space tugs and one-Kerbal or uncrewed vehicles to deorbit debris. Then again, I don't really have a terribly large amount of stuff to get rid of for the time being...

This sounds perfect! I'd love to play a mission like this.

[SciMan]

CosmicX1, most people call that kind of tiny srb a "retro-rocket" or a "separation assist motor", because they point "retrograde" aka backwards and they get the spent stages of a rocket out of the way.

The KW Rocketry pack has a part that can be used as a retro-rocket, and best of all its been updated to work with 0.16! the part from it that you will probably want is called the "KW Series Sideswiper I" in KSP once you have the pack installed.

You don't really need to install the whole mod if you don't want to, all that you need is the "kwSpinBoosterSRB" folder from it, take that and put it in your "KSP_win\parts" folder and you have the part.

find the mod here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/2448-0-16-KW-Rocketry-v0-5

One thing you will need to do when you use them is use your part rotation options to rotate the new part so that it points where you need it to point.

The controls for part rotation are not a well-documented feature of the game, so here they are.

press W/S, A/D, Q/E keys to rotate the part 90 degrees per press, holding the SHIFT key when rotating a part makes it turn 5 degrees

[Bluejayek]

I don't think any of those strategies is going to work for me

[vexx32]

If you don't have any debris you want to keep, go to the Settings screen and set the Max Persistent Debris option to 0. Save and exit the settings screen to remove all debris. You can always reenable it later if you really want a junkyard up there.

[whatisthisidonteven]

I don't think any of those strategies is going to work for me

Good god, what have you done?!

[Mun Man]

An air cannon...in space...I understand the concept but the air wouldnt push the debris away it would [ush the ship like an rcs booster would.

[deker13]

keeping space junk in the atmosphere has ts problems too because what if it survives?(or that u have a bunch of carriers to launch boats into the water...)then u cause a lot of lag if u have a lot of space junk in the area u are looking at. the best solution is to get a mod for this there is one that can be remotely detonated once u drop the stage but the prob is u need to put it on first so it wont work for pre-existing space junk

Edited August 26, 2012 by deker13

[SciMan]

there is also the SUNBEAM laser cannon mod/plugin, but i am unsure if it has been updated for 0.16, or even if it needed to be updated, also there is the problem of having to get within 2km of your target in order to be able to zap it, because that is how close you need to be to get the target to go "off rails" and actually be able to be hit by stuff

[EvilotionCR2]

I like space debris.I made myself asteroid belt arround Kerbin,it's pretty cool.

[Bashkire]

Just brainstorming here, but could one push the debris out of orbit? Granted, that would be very hard, but I only use stock parts and it would be good to get a solution going.

Now, my theory:

Debris orbiting Kerbin at 100,000 meters altitude and moving at 200 mps.

Spacecraft takes off from KSP to intercept the debris on the same trajectory, orbital heading and speed. A Kerbal then performs an EVA and, using RCS thrusters on his pack, he pushes the debris back to Kerbin upon which time they burn up in the atmosphere (see crash into Kerbin). The Kerbal then gets back into his rocket and moves to the next debris or returns to Kerbin.

Thoughts?

[Nikolai]

Just brainstorming here, but could one push the debris out of orbit?

In theory, that's good. In practice, it's much more difficult. You have to match position and velocity with the debris you want to clear. Then you have to move you and it to a velocity that will eventually fall into Kerbin, using nothing but the Kerbal's jetpack. Then you have to move the Kerbal to match position and velocity with the rocket he used to get to orbit. I don't think it would be at all easy to do if you don't plan to use any cheats.

As I type, though, the idea of designating a bunch of Kerbals in strategically-placed capsules to stay in permanent orbit and clear debris is kind of appealing, just because of its audacity.

[Bashkire]

Sorry, only just got back to this topic. If the RCS pack on a kerbal's suit wouldn't work, how about creating a purpose built rockets for it. Problems that I can see right away are, obviously, getting to the right orbit and speed but also the fact that the ship will probably be rather fragile and therefore explode when an attempt to push the debris out of the way is made.

Again, thoughts?

[air805ronin]

I purposely let go of stages before I have a complete orbit or when I get set up to land on my destination. The chance of hitting any is so small on my map it would take the worst kind of luck to run into something. Enables me to avoid this problem altogether.

If I were nice I'd put parachutes on some of them so they can be reusable, but we don't have to worry about cost yet....

[Trebuchet-Launch]

I presume you could get that one claw mod and grab chunks of debris, then mutually deorbit. I have a minor amount of junk in orbit around either Kerbin or Kerbol, but most was impacted into something else.

With the upcoming NTR engine in 0.17, it might be worthwhile to build a de-orbiter vehicle. What the game really needs, though, is a laser broom - which doesn't explode the target, but gradually deorbits it through radiation pressure and/or vaporizing parts of the surface as 'propellant'.