How do YOU manage your debris?

[Colonel_Panic]

Community thread time! share your solutions (or lack thereof).

Personally I like to attach a probe core to the final stage of my lifter, so that when it separates from the payload, I can use any remaining fuel to de-orbit it. For really big lifters that might have a substantial amount of fuel left after getting a heavy payload into orbit, I will sometimes include also a clamp-o-tron jr docking port, and leave it in orbit as an OFD for my spaceplanes to leech off of until it's almost empty, before de-orbiting.

When it comes to interplanetary transfer vehicles, I will sometimes stage the smaller ones and just write off the debris they generate since it'll be left in a sufficiently eccentric orbit it's unlikely to cause problems. For larger ones, I try to make them fully re-useable so they don't drop anything.

[Piv]

I just let it drift in space.. XD

[LeonG17]

I leave them in space to see whether they hit my ships. I call it a experiment in probability.

[astropapi1]

Well, mostly I try to leave it on a suborbital trajectory, but when that's impossible, I use the large Sepratrons from KW rocketry to deorbit it after decoupling.

[JupiterII]

I usually leave the amount of debris build up until Kerbin is no longer visible. As you can imagine this causes a lot of problems later on, but I do like the look of Kerbin with rings.

[ShachonianX]

I only have one piece of debris in orbit, so I just deal with it. If it gets out of hand, I will find a way to remove it. Orbital trash collector? Or should I say, destroyer?

[The Jedi Master]

Wow, I'm the only one who just turns it off...

[whatisthisidonteven]

There's never enough debris to be a concern. That being said, I do try and keep debris to a minimum.

[RocketPilot573]

I used to just leave it all until both Kerbin orbit and interplanetary space were completely flooded with debris. It got to the point where close calls with hitting a debris was a big problem. But now I try to take care of it if possible by either dropping it before the ship makes orbit or drop the stage while the ship is on a crash course with whatever celestial body I'm heading to.

[TheDarkStar]

I don't.

Edited May 19, 2013 by TheDarkStar

[Panzerbeard]

I just drop it and forget about it. The chances of actually hitting anything is extremely low; when you look at the circumference of the orbit, then look at how tiny the debris and ships are in comparison, you'd have to be extremely unlucky to actually hit anything unless you put some effort into it.

Hell, I can't even get close to stuff when I'm actually trying to, let alone accidentally

If my map view gets too cluttered to work with, or I start to get some lag, I may just turn off persistent debris, but for now they're fine where they are.

[Sir Nahme]

I try and leave it on a suborbital trajectory and circularize with my payload engines.

I try and de-orbit it after circularizing.

These two. Some pieces like satellites usually have the booster still attached after orbit and i bring it back down under power, for everything else I drop expended stages and use the final payload engine to circularize. Most have their own chutes and such in anticipation of recovery. My biggest problem right now is the trash on the ground that has landed, It's starting to pile up.

[Panzerbeard]

I don't.

-big screenshot-

Dear god...

Give it time, Kerbal with have it's own planetary ring built entirely from spacejunk

[koshelenkovv]

I set 20 pieces of debris. It is enough for flavor and not enough to pile up.

[TheDarkStar]

Give it time, Kerbal with have it's own planetary ring built entirely from spacejunk

That will be a glorious day indeed.

[artao]

For now I'm letting it drift, and I'd prefer to drop it in a sub-orbital trajectory.

However, if it gets to be too much or irritates me, I use Haystack to switch "control" to the debris and "End Flight" it.

[Tokay Gris]

Mostly I ignore it and in one case am actually proud of it.

My Minimus explorer had a malfunction due to structural damage while injecting into orbit around the moon.

But I managed to land it on Minimus intact and can still return.

So Minimus is rather cluttered with the debris of that incident.

[Motokid600]

I think in .20 there adding filters for the map. You won't have to look at the debris. That's the only real reason to get rid of it.... I don't like clutter. Correct me if I'm wrong of course.

[Panzerbeard]

That will be a glorious day indeed.

Hey, just think, every time you leave or return to Kerbin, you'll be able to re-enact the Star Trek Voyager intro by flying through the rings

[Tokay Gris]

Oh, and as an afterthought.... A lot of my debris is leftover mayor stages with some fuel left and a docking port.... Not that bad an idea to have a fuel station if you need one.

Just used one, because the return mission from the Mun ran short on fuel to make it to the Duna explorer.

[Richy teh space man]

I try and make it re enter the atmosphere, and that usually keeps my sphere of influences clean.

[Rockhem]

I don't.

I don't either

Haystack FTW!

[Vostok]

Dealing with debris is too tame for any self-respecting Kerbal. If you crash into it, it's your own fault.

(Besides, with tracking station filtering coming soon, you can just afford to forget about it!)

[NeoMorph]

Heh... We should just make a ring of junk.... just add a docking adapter on the ends and a probe body and a singly solar panel. It's enough to dock it. Oh and some RCS too.

[ShachonianX]

Heh... We should just make a ring of junk.... just add a docking adapter on the ends and a probe body and a singly solar panel. It's enough to dock it. Oh and some RCS too.

Danny once made a ring of junk around Kerbin. It caused the planet to disappear.