How do you deorbit you debris?

[lammatt]

i tried sticking a pair of nova punch solid rocket mini-booster (the one with 100 thrust) on an orange tank at a ~120km circular orbit.

and staged them together with the decoupler so that when i dumped the tank; the rocket fires.

but the problem i ran into is that... when i stage separate the tank... the rockets pushed the tank into a spin and the thrust of cos didnt push the tank against the velocity vector and the empty tank ended up in space anyways.

[stupid_chris]

Leave a tiny bit of fuel in it and stuck a probe core somewhere, then just switch control to it, turn to point retrograde and burn until you deorbit. It really shouldn't take much fuel.

[KerbMav]

How does the debris limiting option work exactly?

Anything without a pod/core is declared as debris and deleted on a fu/fo basis? (first up/first obliterated)

So a fuel tank parked in orbit or a transfer stage needed for a return trip must have a probe core or gets deleted?

[Johnno]

How does the debris limiting option work exactly?

Anything without a pod/core is declared as debris and deleted on a fu/fo basis? (first up/first obliterated)

Pretty much yeah, I'm not 100% on the first up/ first obliterated as when I found out about the function I just set it to zero, so everything without a probecore/manned module counts as debris. They won't get deleted until they're a specific distance away from you (2.3km in atmosphere I believe). In space you can still see them for a distance, I think they delete when you swap ships/go back to space center or exit/save game.

So a fuel tank parked in orbit or a transfer stage needed for a return trip must have a probe core or gets deleted?

Probe core or manned module, yes. I've got my persistant debris set to zero and put a probecore on absolutely everything that I want to keep around.

[Synapse]

I play the long game - wait until the Sun explodes and consumes them all.

[Sirrobert]

I always strap septratrons to the upper stages that I expect would be stuck in atmosphere. Than point prograde and stage, firing the sepratrons.

If you find they cause a spin, you didn't put them on symetricly

[Skorpychan]

Careful design is how, currently. My mun rocket doesn't leave ANYTHING in orbit. Everything goes suborbitally either to kerbin or the mun, to crash and explode.

Unfortunately, that also includes the payload at the moment, but that's pending a redesign for more thrust, more fuel, and a diet.

[Vedexent]

You can always just set the number of persistent debris to zero in the game settings.

The game will remove debris as they are created.

[Cydonian Monk]

Careful design for the most part. I never use my launch/boost stages to reach a full orbit, so they always fall back to Kerbin. If I'm working in Kerbin LKO, the orbital stage stays with the craft until deorbit. Orbital stages for satellite launches (LKO/MKO/KSO) get probe cores and some small solar panels so I can deorbit once the payload is delivered.

I try to impact transfer stages on the body being transferred to. Occasionally these miss and end up in Kerbolar orbit or hit Kerbin on a free-return. In my 0.20.2 game there are three pieces of junk in Kerbol orbit from my first Mun landing (2 struts and a docking port), and the transfer stages from my first two Duna and Eve probes. Everything else is dust.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Cydonian Monk
Typo .20.2 not .21.

[Person012345]

I disapprove of this genocide against the debris. Debris has rights too! Save the debris! <3 debris.

[MonkeyFuzz]

I actually try to leave debris in my orbits. It's pleasant watching them zip by (especially if they're in a retro-grade orbit). I feel like my ever growing cloud of refuse is a small badge of accomplishment, symbolizing all of the missions that I've run.

[Cashen]

I design my rockets to have a primary ascent stage that reaches the apoapsis, and decouples to fall back down in a ballistic trajectory, and the I have a much smaller circularizing stage that has a MechJeb controller on it, which completes the orbital insertion, decouples, and then is (later) manually deorbited with whatever fuel it has left.

If I botch the design and it is unable to deorbit, then it becomes permanent space debris.

[That guy who builds stuff]

If it's a booster stage:

I put those little solid rockets on it pointing retrograde along with a parachute, when the tank runs out the rockets fire and the chutes arm at the same time as the decoupler goes off, then the whole thing is deorbited and "recovered"(deleted in the atmosphere)

If it's a interplanetary stage:

It gets decoupled on a collision course with the planet if it's a one way trip or it's deorbited and recovered at Kerbin.

That's assuming it's a one use thing and not a reusable module that can be docked to the refueling station.

I actually try to leave debris in my orbits. It's pleasant watching them zip by (especially if they're in a retro-grade orbit). I feel like my ever growing cloud of refuse is a small badge of accomplishment, symbolizing all of the missions that I've run.

It's all fun and games till someone loses a kerbal

[zxczxczbfg]

I personally prefer to keep the stable-orbiting debris there, to add realism. But if it poses a threat, I sometimes throw together a disposable unmanned ship to either dock with it and fly it back down, use the Kerbal Attachment System mod to tow it behind me, or sometimes just ram it out of orbit. Or, if you've got a weaponry mod (like one of the Lazor System mods), you could blow it up from a surface weapons emplacement.

[Zephram Kerman]

Search for the phrase "debris mitigation" for more threads like this one.

The main idea is to design the launcher stages so that they don't finish in a stable orbit. The launcher should end up re-entering the atmosphere, while your payload can start on its own with just a little kick to circularize.

For example, let's assume your goal is a circular orbit of 125km altitude. The last booster should run out of fuel when your AP is 125, and your PE is about 15-20. Then run a tiny engine to raise PE from 20 up to 125. It won't take much.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Zephram Kerman

[draeath]

You can always just set the number of persistent debris to zero in the game settings.

The game will remove debris as they are created.

Is there a reciprocal setting? I want everything that's not on the launchpad to stay.

[Shania_L]

Is there a reciprocal setting? I want everything that's not on the launchpad to stay.

Not exactly reciprocal, but the setting is a slider, so if its not at 0 you can set the maximum value to be very high (10,000+ I believe).

As for my own methods, I do try to design either to stage while still in sub-orbit, or to have control over anything I detach so it can be manually de-orbited. However there are always exceptions to the rule and for these things I took inspiration from You only live twice...

In my defence it was designed for slightly smaller debris, Mk2 will be larger

[Kimberly]

Is there a reciprocal setting? I want everything that's not on the launchpad to stay.

Set it to any non-zero number, and up to that amount of debris will stay. It goes up to 1000 or so, I think.

[Frederf]

Cutoff is 23km so I try to have my final stage stop with a Pe of 22.5km. Anything that gets beyond that point is designed to be controllable and have a planned reentry path. Occasionally I'll have stuff in the upper atmosphere and I roleplay it for a few days and then manually delete it. A mod that slowly degraded debris orbits <100km would be neato.

[RexKramer]

I also like to make every piece which doesn't fall back to Kerbin on its own controllable, to limit debris.

As previously noted, this requires at a minimum a control module. I also like to tack on at least one solar panel, to keep the control module powered- otherwise it becomes junk when the batteries are depleted.

Also, I've accidentally run lower stages out of fuel before reaching the atmosphere, which also leaves the ship stuck in orbit.