Need some ideal on capturing debris...

[Sirine]

Having 3 at Minmus, and 2 at Mun....try to launch a craft to deorbit/capture/destroy them...

Any ideal? Thanks in advance.

Note: there are no actual hole there.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Sirine

[Sirrobert]

You could try to make a cage with girders, but it'd have to be pritty tight for such a small part. Also, as soon as you timewarp it'll just drift right out again cause lack of physics, so I hope it's a small burn to deorbit once you capture it

[Taki117]

You could always just terminate the flight in the tracking station, but barring that you could just leave it there. Although if you do want to be nice and pick up after yourself a girder cage is really your only option.

[Sirine]

Thanks for the input. Think I gonna make a few more test.

[DisarmingBaton5]

Make a girder lance and ram it! Just don't hit any planets...

Seriously, do. I rammed a medium-sized piece of debris that was lingering around my station recently by ramming it with my CM. It worked surprisingly well.

[Dogface]

I created a scoop, got behind the debris and deorbited it. the lander legs are mounted to a battery, and deploy in orbit, creating a scoop.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Dogface

[Azereiah]

The awesome solution: Giant baseball bat made out of panels and reaction wheels. Get close, calculate angle of impact, and smash it out of orbit.

The practical solution: A large scoop or bowl at the front of a small utility ship with nuclear engines.

[Soda Popinski]

The awesome solution: Giant baseball bat made out of panels and reaction wheels. Get close, calculate angle of impact, and smash it out of orbit.

The practical solution: A large scoop or bowl at the front of a small utility ship with nuclear engines.

Awesomer answer, a cage with multiple rockets pointing inward to overheat and destroy/explode the debris.

[Azereiah]

Awesomer answer, a cage with multiple rockets pointing inward to overheat and destroy/explode the debris.

I'm totally doing this now.

[Rhomphaia]

Awesomer answer, a cage with multiple rockets pointing inward to overheat and destroy/explode the debris.

A little test with hack gravity

Didnt get a good shot of the tank destruction, let's try the decoupler

Works well.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Rhomphaia

[Matt_Sharkey]

Works well.

Oh god, the Kessler Syndrome!

which brings the potential for a cool feature, if an orbital object explodes, they remain as a cloud of debris that has a density based on what object was destroyed, these clouds could have the same orbital mechanics as other objects but can cause damage or drag when encountered with considerable relative velocity.

[Soda Popinski]

A little test with hack gravity

Holy crap, it worked? Did you decouple the "debris first"? I'd be worried about it flying off. I suppose if you have KAS (Kerbal Attachment System), you could magnetically grapple it and haul it in. Of course, you have KAS, you could just collect the pieces and de-orbit them individually. Of course with this space furnace idea, you could do multiple captures and melt-downs.

[NJC2]

Funny, I've been doing a little orbital debris cleaning myself. I came here to see if I could get an answer to a different question and this was the first post on the page. After my first few attempts to get things in orbit, I had left a good bit of debris behind. I now to try to make my launch stages self cleaning, but I still had several pieces of debris in orbit. Deleting them from the command center felt like cheating, so I decided to try and come up with a way to knock them out of orbit. After I did it a few times consistently, I figured I would just delete them from the command center and pretend I sent up a ship to do it. However, each attempt was a different challenge and I kept thinking I could do better, so I just kept going.

My first design (sorry, I don't have screen shots of it in flight) was to use LT-1 lander legs as a grabber. This was in 0.21 and I didn't know that those legs were bugged when in the lowered position. After matching orbit with a non functioning satellite, I had to leave. When I returned and loaded the game, the legs were gone from my craft. I already put the time to get in orbit and lined up, so I just decided to try and nudge it out of orbit. It worked, but I think I just got lucky too. After matching orbits and lining up, I only had enough fuel for a half second burn. When I nudged up against it I just happened to be facing the retrograde and that half second burn was enough to deorbit the satellite and the deorbiter.

My second design I just swapped out the lander legs with an upside down small to large adapter. I figured since nudging worked in the last try that I would just give myself a larger surface area to nudge with. This design didn't work as well though. I went up after a rocket stage left after putting up a satellite. It took me a bit longer to get lined up with it facing retrograde, and when I performed the de-orbit burn the junk rolled off. I had to recapture it a couple of times to slow it down enough to deorbit it. Even then it only dipped into the atmosphere enough to slow it down and took two more orbits before aero breaking it slowed enough to bring it down.

My third design I used girders as a basket and the LT-2 landing lets as a lid for the basket. This craft worked pretty well. I was able to capture that rocket stage and had enough fuel, battery and RCS left over that I was able to capture another piece of junk with it. The second thing I deorbited with it was another satellite. It was working, but it really didn't server any purpose. I did discover a small flaw in the design though. That small satellite would slip out between the girders.

After that third craft was able to deorbit two pieces of debris, I came up with the idea to design a craft that would stay in orbit and could be reused over and over. I came up with what I call the Modular Orbital De-Orbiter (MODO). It is basically a larger version of my third design, but I have a large clamp-o-tron on the end so I can change out the business end. For the first tool, I just made the same basket and legs design, but used struts to fill the gaps. It worked fine on the first try plucking out another rocket stage, and the second try on another satellite. But when I went for another small satellite it would still slip out because the struts don't physically collide with other objects.

I only have two pieces of debris left, which are the first satellite I ever put up, and the rocket stage used to put it there. There was plenty of fuel left in the rocket to deorbit itself, but I didn't know I needed power and a control module on it, so it's just been stuck there. I'm going to bring down both the satellite and the rocket, but the problem is that it is in a retrograde orbit offset about 30°.

I designed a new basket and sent it up, attached it, but I go distracted for a few weeks and never finished my junk cleaning. The last thing I did before the break was to refuel it and begin it's transfer orbit. I made it from an equatorial orbit to a nearly polar orbit before running out of fuel. That's where I left off. I just now re-fueled it and I'm about to finish cleaning my junk. Here's a closer look at the new junk catcher design.

The refueler is still attached because it has quite a bit of fuel left. I still have about 45° of inclination change to make, so I'm going to use the refueler as a booster until it runs out of fuel. There's plenty of RCS fuel on the refueler that it can deorbit with RCS.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Try using normal warp to warp into the debris, then stop warping

[Grover]

Why bother with a basket and a nudge? Why not make a cannon that blasts them retrograde? Sounds much more kerbal to me than bumping into things...although both are definatley kerbal now i think about it

[RedPine]

Why bother with a basket and a nudge? Why not make a cannon that blasts them retrograde? Sounds much more kerbal to me than bumping into things...although both are definatley kerbal now i think about it

Try the Danny2462 Mass Relay (skip to 3:40)

The same principle could be used on small to medium debris. Space Furnace idea by Soda, a few posts above, looks mighty fun too.

[Elmun]

I was experimenting with a device to capture debris / pods needing rescue. My inspiration came from James Bond:

I'm at work and dont have any pictures of how I did it, but essentially its a infernal robotics hinge, with a I-beam and a third of a fairing on top. Works well for capturing something, then just burning to have an orbit that re-enters the atmosphere.

[Murph]

Personally, I delegate all my debris issues to the Planetary Defence Command of the Kerbal Airforce. I notify them of any problematic debris issues by clicking the appropriately labelled Terminate button in the tracking centre, and they swiftly terminate the debris for me using their super-secret lasers.

[Soda Popinski]

Just installed Kerbal Attachment System (KAR). I plan to clear the local area of my orbital construction using magnetic wences and deorbiting the lot.