What to do about debris?

[Imaginer1]

In KSP, I hate debris. It is the work of the devil. I try my best to disallow any stage separation while in orbit. Debris clogs up map mode and is a general eyesore and difficulty to important missions.

What can be done? My idea was to put a Clamp-O-Tron, Jr. onto debris that will end up in orbit, later sending up a probe to deorbit it. But what else can be done?

[sal_vager]

If you put a probe, a battery and a solar panel on each booster, and leave it with a little bit of fuel, your debris will be able to de-orbit itself

Or you could try catching it in a garbage collection craft, or leave a docking port on it like you say, or set debris to zero in the settings.

There's even a laser somewhere you can use to blast debris out of the sky

[Aeshi]

And for Debris with no docking ports, I've seen at least two rockets that have make-shift giant claws built onto the end for grabbing debris.

[Imaginer1]

That sounds the best, actually!

[Polar Bear]

Make sepatron missiles, they're stock, and can be used to shoot stuff down.

This guy has a

, He has lots of awesome videos, and in some of them he demonstrates his weaponary.

Like

If the target has too many parts this will probabaly just help you create more debris though.

[HoY]

Depending on the mass of each piece you know your going to leave in orbit but don't want there, add retrograde firing sepratrons that fire at the same time as the stage is released. With the right number of them the part will end up on a sub orbital trajectory, right where you want it! Could hurt your part count a fair bit for heavier stages, but things that you drop in orbit won't be too heavy any usually.

[Felsmak]

Don't be so harsh. Debris... is... people, too! My English skills just hit a dead end.

[HoY]

Or you can install this mod. It will let you self destruct each piece after you drop it

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25830-PLUGIN-0-19-1-TAC-Self-Destruct-%28v1-0-1-Apr-28%29

[nats]

Why on earth not just set debris persistence to zero and be done with it for good? It stays around for the present mission and then goes. What is there not to like about that?

Its not as if you are ever going to see the debris again so why do you even want it around cluttering your map? Its a pointless distraction and it slows the game down. I don't see anything good about showing persistent debris at all.

Edited May 6, 2013 by nats

[sporkafife]

I think sepatron missiles is the most kerbal idea, mainly because it is likely to create even more debris

[Brotoro]

Why on earth not just set debris persistence to zero and be done with it for good? It stays around for the present mission and then goes. What is there not to like about that?

Its not as if you are ever going to see the debris again so why do you even want it around cluttering your map? Its a pointless distraction and it slows the game down. I don't see anything good about showing persistent debris at all.

I've visited the debris left behind on the surfaces of the moons and planets on subsequent missions. It makes a nice landing target and fun mission objective. So I keep my debris level set at a non-zero level to keep that stuff around.

[Imaginer1]

Ok, where is that in settings O.O?

[katateochi]

I really don't like setting the debris limit to 0 in settings, as Brotoro says it's nice to visit memorials of missions gone horribly wrong and some of my "debris" is actually useful.

There are number of solutions thou. By far the easiest is to make a ship which has laser weaponry on it and go and shoot it down. You need the sunbeam lazer for that

And for Debris with no docking ports, I've seen at least two rockets that have make-shift giant claws built onto the end for grabbing debris.

indeed;

But actually grabbing stuff with claws is HARD. claws break, the debris break, the slightest wrong grab and bits go spinning of in various directions (or just blow up in your face). Which is why the above craft also packs 3 lazer guns (and I increased the strength setting in the part.cfg for the claws).

Putting docking ports on things is good, until you forget to put one on. But now there is a solution to that too; The Kerbal Attachment System. You can use that to grab (and even dock) to anything.

But imho trying to not put any debris in orbit is the best thing and it adds another aspect to rocket design.

[Deadpangod3]

I really don't like setting the debris limit to 0 in settings, as Brotoro says it's nice to visit memorials of missions gone horribly wrong and some of my "debris" is actually useful.

There are number of solutions thou. By far the easiest is to make a ship which has laser weaponry on it and go and shoot it down. You need the sunbeam lazer for that

indeed;

But actually grabbing stuff with claws is HARD. claws break, the debris break, the slightest wrong grab and bits go spinning of in various directions (or just blow up in your face). Which is why the above craft also packs 3 lazer guns (and I increased the strength setting in the part.cfg for the claws).

Putting docking ports on things is good, until you forget to put one on. But now there is a solution to that too; The Kerbal Attachment System. You can use that to grab (and even dock) to anything.

But imho trying to not put any debris in orbit is the best thing and it adds another aspect to rocket design.

How come you always design awesome stuff?? And I can never get my stuff to look awesome without it not working, that ship is awesome...

[Noticeably FAT]

Ok, where is that in settings O.O?

First page of the settings screen, there is a 'Max persistent debris' (or something along those lines) slider. Set it to 0, and no debris is kept. If you still want debris to show up but the current amount is getting difficult to work with, you can set it to 0, start your game, exit your game, then reset it to whatever you want. That will bomb all current debris but will let you create more. I do this every now and again when it becomes difficult to select targets. It amuses me to have a large debris field, but only until it affects gameplay. Then it has to go.

[automcdonough]

design it out. all but the last two stages are done with before orbit is complete. If not then you over-built it and should just bail on it before the low end of orbit reaches 70k.

the space stage with the nuke engine usually doesn't (shouldn't) go dry until landing time, bail on it when it's going to crash into the destination planet. the weight loss can throw off landing calculations so if the lander has lots of fuel then better to biff the dead stage early.

I really don't get much debris if I'm careful like this.