How do YOU manage your debris?

[Nori]

I try to not leave anything up there but I'm not the most efficient pilot so there is usually something... So if I get too many I just delete from the tracking station.

[Colonel_Panic]

To all you "OCD" players out there; strive for realism. Very few space programs actually deorbit debris (none) even though I'm sure a few of you will prove me wrong. Space debris is one of my favourite parts of KSP. All those pretty flames...

Modern space programs try to minimize it, because it's a very real problem for us now. NASA actually tracks every piece of debris in orbit right now, dating all the way back to the first space program. It's a lot of junk, and the smallest collision could destroy a billion dollar mission. There are some plans in the works to design and implement vehicles capable of deorbiting derelict satellites, but as of yet the cost of doing so is too high to be worthwhile. It's far easier to just plan the missions to leave everything out of orbit apart from what you plan to keep there. It's why we stopped using things like explosive bolts on orbital craft.

Kerbin is a much smaller planet than Earth, and most players use a smaller range of orbits than we do, so a debris problem can crop up faster. I deorbit what I can, but generally ignore what I can't, or that which would require too much effort. My trash collectors stay in orbit but are very infrequently used since .20. Every once ina while I might have a catastrophe in a heavily populated low parking orbit, and decide to deorbit the larger pieces before they can hit something important. I strive for realism where I can and don't like using the magic "solve problem" button if I can avoid it. I make an exception though for catastrophes which are caused by some glitch in the game and are no fault of my own, like spontaneously exploding stations.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Colonel_Panic

[CatastrophicFailure]

So with all this talk of debris, has anyone ACTUALLY had a collision? I don't mean with that stage you just dropped an orbit or two ago, I'm talking something that's been up there not-rusting for some time?

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

So with all this talk of debris, has anyone ACTUALLY had a collision? I don't mean with that stage you just dropped an orbit or two ago, I'm talking something that's been up there not-rusting for some time?

Well, on my KISS Station (Kerbal International Space Station), the second stack from my Trans Munar Injection stage. It was orbiting the Mun for a while so when it hit is was some 2900m/s. I had to restart the station

[Skyrunner27]

Well I just leave it in space because it is mostly harmless...mostly. I mean the closest collision I had was a near collision between a abandoned station and a current mun mission that had a near miss after a transfer burn.When I first started I left huge amounts of debris in orbit. More recently I have avoided putting debris in orbit through abandoning it in a sub-orbital trajectory.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Infact, I made a ship called "Debris Maker 9000 (The other 8999 weren't relevant)". That didn't fit so I settled for Debris Maker 9000. It had a lot of decouplers, went into a 100km orbit then fired. Lots of debris. Makes it more realistic

[Kimberly]

I try to leave space uncluttered. For stuff that lands back on the homeworld, I just cancel the flight, deleting it. If it's in orbit or on another planet, though, I typically just leave it there; I don't want to make trash, but trying to approach a piece of junk and pushing it into an unstable orbit takes far too much time.

[General Rarity]

I try to leave them in space so I can easily do my first 'orbital' rendezvous (and because I want rings with my wings)

[way2smrt]

I try to leave a bit of fuel and a probe core... I also keep max persistent debris on 50 so I don't have debris from launches a while ago.

[Kimberly]

Speaking of debris, is there a way to manually designate spacecraft as debris? Probes are properly registered as probes, but if the rocket that released them remains in space, it will be considered an active mission rather than debris.

[michaelphoenix22]

Speaking of debris, is there a way to manually designate spacecraft as debris? Probes are properly registered as probes, but if the rocket that released them remains in space, it will be considered an active mission rather than debris.

this will be fixed Soon TM

[Colonel_Panic]

Speaking of debris, is there a way to manually designate spacecraft as debris? Probes are properly registered as probes, but if the rocket that released them remains in space, it will be considered an active mission rather than debris.

If the rocket or part does not have any control core, it will automatically register as debris. If it does have a control core of some kind, right-click on the control core and select rename, then change the icon to debris type, and it will register as debris.

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

I usually leave it in an orbit.

Unless I'm building a space station, in which case debris will prevent me from selecting the station as a target!

In which case I try and deorbit it.

[Ratata]

best anti debris? sunbeam by far, or lazor guided missiles. the most effective and also the most fun way. i miss the option in the poll :

[Aragosnat]

I would love to leave it up in orbit. Just my lap top hates it so I have to disable it completely. Otherwise I would be using the lazer mod I have to blow the bitz up.

[Unistrut]

When it starts to get annoying I edit the worst bits out of my persistence file using Notepad++. For a while I'd intercept with and shoot down the stuff in Kerbin orbit using the lasers from Romfarer's Lazor mod, but even getting within 2.2Km of something takes more time than I really cared to spend. It did make me much better at intercepting and docking (to refuel after doing all the burning to intercept targets).

[sierra_seven_]

I leave a small amount of fuel in my tanks (as well as enough electricity, heh) to drag the debris below LKO and into the atmosphere. If that fails, I send up a small tug with the KAS mod, join the two together, and drag 'em both down into the atmosphere!

[Francesco]

I'm glad to see that most people are smart enough to leave their debris on suborbital trajectories.

on Kerbin, that is: it's a little different on other celestial bodies, though.

[Klingon Admiral]

My OCD demands that everything that goes into a stable orbit and is NO payload has to be equipped with means to deorbit it. That being said, the surroundings of KSC itself are slowly turning into a junkyard.

[FITorion]

Getting to orbit... I don't care... it's all sub orbital anyways.

If I'm going to a higher orbit then I put seperatrons on it and they are usually all I need to put it on a suborbital trajectory.

If I'm going out to the Mun or Minmus or out to the other planets... then I don't do anything. There's so much "space" in space... that I'm not going to run into those things ever...

Once I get to a planet... and if I don't want the cruse stage to be there with my satellite... I use the "end mission" trick... Just after separating I switch to the useless piece and hit end mission...

I hear they're going to be removing that option... so I'll have to do something different in the future... but that's what I do for now.

[Cordeos]

I set the debris limit to 25. I don't feel the need to clutter up my game with it. Maybe when I get back to the US and onto my good computer I will raise the limit.

[ZeroTech Solutions]

Sepratrons. Lots and lots of sepratrons. Stick enough of them facing backwards and they'll often deorbit themselves .