De-orbiting junk

[Scarecrow88]

As I am still trying to get to grips with rendezvousing in orbit, I thought I'd build a little rocket just to jump in to orbit, rendezvous with the empty tanks I jettisoned on other missions, and de-orbit them. The problem I am having is what do I put on the nose of my craft to get sufficient contact so that when I thrust retrograde to break orbit, the fuel tank doesn't just slide away? Obviously I can't use docking, as the tanks don't have a docking node on them. I've tried a V-shaped piece of angle iron, but no success so far.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

[Shrike42]

Maybe a small box made of the structural panels, along with lander legs to form a 'gripper'?

[Scarecrow88]

Ooh, like the lateral thinking - lander legs as grippers.

[Pursuedtank]

You could also use the Girders parts to make a small cage that can push a piece of debris.

[sushinut]

I just happened upon a mod for shooting debris. I just tried a quick search for it, but couldn't find it again... I think the author misspelled "debris" as I recall, so that's one of the reasons I can't find it again. Had

I built a ship for doing this using the EXCELLENT parts from Damned Robotics. Works BEAUTIFULLY. Warning: I'm new to KSP and discovered that the collision function doesn't work in standard time warp... so if you try to do a regular time warp, anything inside the claws will just migrate out. I cleared all my debris before learning of the physical time warp, which I still haven't messed with.

I'd show you a screenshot, but unfortunately, after using forums for decades, I can't seem to find the place for uploading attachments (instructions in FAQ are wrong?). Anyone point me to the correct method?

[sushinut]

If/when my prior post makes it to the forum, I think I figured out the problem with posting attachments: my posting permissions say "You may not post attachments." New user restriction, I assume??

[Mokmo]

I don't know if you're open to using mods,

No mod: Make a bucket, get item in it while facing retrograde close with landing gears, and burn away!

Mod-wise, there are a few ways to do this:

Kerbal Attachment System, just for the magnet because you'll never hit the debris by shooting the winch.

Lazor system, because you can select each piece of debris and Self-destruct/delete it

Sunbeam, basically a laser canon, overheats quickly so short bursts!

Damned Robotics, Claws are pretty sweet too.

[sushinut]

In a thread I started re: having problems with selecting other ships, user DMagic pointed me to the Haystack mod. I haven't used it yet, but it's supposed to also allow you to select debris and simply get rid of it. (I liked the challenge of building a ship to do it regardless).

[Finnerty]

Maybe a small box made of the structural panels, along with lander legs to form a 'gripper'?

Like this person did? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc9rP-gV_j4

[Shrike42]

Like this person did? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc9rP-gV_j4

Yes, but with less pilot capability and more craft durability.

The other alternative (if you have just a few parts, not things that will shotgun on breakup), make missile probes or a sturdy ram. Of course, you might end up adding more debris with that approach.