What’s the best way to clean up small space debri?(solved)

[Wizard Kerbal]

I was docking a module to my space station, as I was zooming towards it, my EC ran out, and I hit it at 90 m/s, destroying the coms array, sending

4x circular monoprop tanks
2x small circular batteries
1x small reaction wheel
1x SAS unit
2x 2G relays
1x 15G deployable satellite dish

Into orbit. I thought of a space bin, then realized when I would warp the debri would escape the bin.

What other ways are there other than pressing terminate on the debri?

Edit: Watching blunder birds

“Previously unaware of the quicksave option”

OH MY GOD

(reloads quicksave)

Edited January 16, 2022 by Wizard Kerbal

[king of nowhere]

you'd have to chase them one by one with a probe made specifically to grab and deorbit. no easy way.

there's a reason space trash is a problem

[Fraktal]

5 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

you'd have to chase them one by one with a probe made specifically to grab and deorbit. no easy way.

Actually, you can probably do the job like this.

• Bring an engineer and plenty of fuel.
• Intercept trash.
• Have the engineer exit and hang off of a ladder. You won't be able to warp like this, so do this only at the very end of each interception.
• Once close enough, kill relative velocity.
• Turn/translate until the engineer can reach the trash in EVA construction mode without letting go of the ladder.
• If it's a small component, stuff it into a storage unit; if big, surface-attach it somewhere on the craft where it'll harmlessly burn off during reentry.
• If you have spare fuel left, go after the next piece.

[splashboom]

Sorry to hear about your module. I assume by bin you mean designating a - orbiting - volume of space where you expect the debris to stay so you can avoid them? As you point out they will not stay clustered ..

The only method I know is to delete them one by one in the tracking station. It would be nice to have a delete all option. Then again if it skips the warnings about killing crew it might increase the risk to kerbals .

Unless you meant to physically gather them like in a cargo bay (also they would not stay in ..). Bring many claws attached to the craft and grab each one, I guess that will keep them attached. Quite a feat of robotics, I would just delete them and lift new ones from the launch pad. OR have an EVA engineer attach them to mounting points you prepared on the craft? This one I never tried, not sure about it.

[Wizard Kerbal]

 

42 minutes ago, Fraktal said:

Actually, you can probably do the job like this.

• Turn/translate until the engineer can reach the trash in EVA construction mode without letting go of the ladder

I’m on console. Right now, my solution is a rescue SSTO outfitted with 8 claws, which i’ll have to send up twice.

Heck me I forgot about quicksaves

Edited January 16, 2022 by Wizard Kerbal

[James Kerman]

Some content from an overlapping thread has been merged.

[king of nowhere]

1 hour ago, Fraktal said:

Actually, you can probably do the job like this.

• Bring an engineer and plenty of fuel.
• Intercept trash.
• Have the engineer exit and hang off of a ladder. You won't be able to warp like this, so do this only at the very end of each interception.
• Once close enough, kill relative velocity.
• Turn/translate until the engineer can reach the trash in EVA construction mode without letting go of the ladder.
• If it's a small component, stuff it into a storage unit; if big, surface-attach it somewhere on the craft where it'll harmlessly burn off during reentry.
• If you have spare fuel left, go after the next piece.

yes, and you still have to rendez-vous with every single piece of debris individually. that's the problem

[Scarecrow71]

You could try one of the cleaner mods, such as...

 

[magnemoe]

17 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

yes, and you still have to rendez-vous with every single piece of debris individually. that's the problem

No you do not, have an small rocket or space plane with an engineer, have an disposable strut like an long H beam you carry into orbit and then attach to the nose or tail, you must attach this to an docking port or decopler. As other say have an ladder for the engineer. 
Intercept all the junk and attach it it to the H beam. Do an deorbit burn and decouple the beam then land. 

Now as you has an space station, you could make an RCS tug.  1.25 m mono prop tank. an 1.25 m storage container. two puff engines on this, an tail with .625 m probe, reaction wheel and battery, probably an .65 monoprop tank for length. small docking port, an medium docking port in front. 4 small rcs in front and end of tail.  1-2 rover seats on the tail, add an ladder for eva work, small solar panels and put down 2-4 Cubic Octagonal Strut to easy mount stuff onto the craft. 
Very useful for stuff like adding new modules to the station, rescuing kerbals in lko and repair or salvage missions. Lots of the stuff on your list is useful, if junk just drop Pe to 30 km, drop stuff and circulate  
Keybind turning on and off the puff engines and the rcs so they don't fire moving the station. 

In deep space its no junk only resources, this get exponential true who farther you get from Kerbin. 

[king of nowhere]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

No you do not, have an small rocket or space plane with an engineer, have an disposable strut like an long H beam you carry into orbit and then attach to the nose or tail, you must attach this to an docking port or decopler. As other say have an ladder for the engineer. 
Intercept all the junk and attach it it to the H beam. Do an deorbit burn and decouple the beam then land.

In which way "intercepting all the junk" is different from "rendez-vous with every single piece"?

[Fraktal]

You don't have to launch a separate craft for every piece. Their orbital inclinations and eccentricities are close enough to each other that fuel usage should be comparatively minimal, even if you factor in changing your orbit after each piece to catch up with the next without waiting for weeks/months.

[DeadJohn]

On 1/15/2022 at 6:36 PM, splashboom said:

It would be nice to have a delete all option.

There's a game setting to auto-delete when there's too much debris. Look for "maximum persistent debris". Default is 250 but you can turn it all the way down to 0 to get rid of all debris.

Note that if you leave it at 0 on a permanent basis you run some risks during EVA construction. Imagine detaching a part to adjust a base, leave the part on the ground, get distracted and switch to another ship, come back to the base and your part is gone.

[Wizard Kerbal]

6 hours ago, DeadJohn said:

There's a game setting to auto-delete when there's too much debris. Look for "maximum persistent debris". Default is 250 but you can turn it all the way down to 0 to get rid of all debris.

I didn't want to just terminate them, it felt kinda cheaty