Do you leave debris in orbit?

[flyin_ruski]

I created a Station Killing Probe for my sandbox save and prematurely activated it due to a staging error. I later realized I did so in my career save >.<

Now I have 150ish pieces of debris. Every few minutes any one of my four fuel drones are within 60 km or so of a piece.

[Woopert]

I created a Station Killing Probe for my sandbox save and prematurely activated it due to a staging error. I later realized I did so in my career save >.<

Now I have 150ish pieces of debris. Every few minutes any one of my four fuel drones are within 60 km or so of a piece.

http://i.imgur.com/uTRwsV4.png

Just go ahead and delete it, we won't judge you.

[MonkeyFuzz]

Absolutely I leave stuff in orbit. Until the collection of flotsam turns into a performance drain, which I've only really noticed for collections of debris around the launch center, I enjoy them as indicators of time and effort given.

[maccollo]

I believe the word is Kessler Syndrome, and it's effectively impossible in KSP. Unless you tend to build crafts out of Oscar-B tanks...

Or launch payloads which are just made up of tons and tons of tiny decouplers, and separate everything in orbit.

Keep launching that until there are a few 1000 pieces of debris, then proceed with your space program and see if anything interesting happens eventually

[CaptRobau]

Sandbox: 0 debris as a setting

Career: Leave debris, don't care about putting it in a safe place

[flyin_ruski]

Just go ahead and delete it, we won't judge you.

I thought about doing that but decided it would add an extra challenge to building in LKO. So now I have a pretty huge shield on what will soon my fuel depot

I never really payed attention to debris in the past few updates because it doesn't show up in map view anymore unless you select it.

[lammatt]

set maximum persistent debris = 0

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

So, that's a Proton launch stage, Mir, and my LER's going to the Mun.

I had no idea that the Proton got that close to Mir within 2.5km

[Guest]

The poll is missing an option for no persistent debris. I use that because of my laptop.

[mythbusters844]

Interplanetary debris

Kerbin debris

Yeah, I generally leave my debris in orbit. I usually deorbit massive tanks though. A single probe core and RTG isn't THAT heavy

Don't ask about the names, but most are self-explanatory.

[Madrias]

It kinda depends. In my Career saves, all debris must be deorbited... eventually. In sandbox, it depends on which era of space I'm running. 0.23, full debris, deorbit at will. 0.22, Max 50 Persistant, Designed Deorbital. 0.21, full debris, deorbit capable. 0.20, Debris Disabled.

[breakthrough]

I delete persistent debris that is on an aerobraking orbit and manually deorbit anything higher. The bulldozer tug is good rendezvous practice.

[Guest]

I'd say about 70% of my booster debris gets deorbited as part of normal launch operations. What's left hasn't been significant enough to worry about.

[sjwt]

I like to design my ships backwards with DV budgets from the target with drops planed to land debris, no point taking anything into or out of a gravity well that you dont need to.

[Tiakatt]

I try not to leave anything around Kerbin. If I did leave something major up there, I'd attempt to deorbit it. If all else fails, I'd probably destroy it from the tracking station.

Other planets/moons? Same as above except that I probably wouldn't bother to destroy it from the tracking station. I just like to keep Kerbin clear of anything I'm not using.

[Kruleworld]

Perhaps ksp needs a self destruct part. If you know your empty tank will become debris, strap a small charge to it and (remotely?) detonate it (basically the same as 'End Flight' from the Space Center). That, or a lazer that can do it from the ground.

[Galacticruler]

The poll is missing an option for no persistent debris. I use that because of my laptop.

much this.

[NeoMorph]

In the early days my LKO looked like a Kessler Syndrome had happened. These days though I plan to make sure that all my boosters fall short or if they make orbit I have enough thrust to make them de-orbit (rear facing thrusters).

[kelmv]

After having a communcation sat duplicate then explode in KSO and thus litter that orbit with >350 parts (I over built it just a tad), I try to avoid leaving trash in orbit after seeing how much of a pain it was, and honestly ditching all but the last stage with a 20km periaps then boosting that last bit into LKO isn't hard.

[Crafty]

Generally I try to design stuff so that it doesn't leave any debris in orbit... However if I do happen to leave it there, I just leave it, I think it adds to the realism.

I thought about making a 'missile' that crashes into the debris and thus destroying it, but I can't really be bothered to do it for the 50+ pieces of debris in low-Kerbin orbit.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Whether I want it or not, there's no debris in Kerbin orbit. The debris of spent stages either are in a hyperbolical orbit or are in an escape route due to being used to capture into a celestial body. I have a debris currently in an escape trajectory out of Minmus and Kerbin. Won't be long until it enters Kerbol orbit.

[davieholgate]

attach a few seperatrons in a retrograde firing position and when you stage, auto de orbit due to seperatrons applying retrograde forces

[davieholgate]

Perhaps ksp needs a self destruct part. If you know your empty tank will become debris, strap a small charge to it and (remotely?) detonate it (basically the same as 'End Flight' from the Space Center). That, or a lazer that can do it from the ground.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25830-0-23-TAC-Self-Destruct-v1-3-1-22Dec

[Dirty Bob]

Need a sometimes option.

Early on I left a lot of debris up there. Now I plan and design to deorbit, but it doesn't always happen.

[RoboRay]

A combination of #2 and #3.