Debris - Community Care Factor Poll

[Caelib]

KSP needs decaying orbits IMO ... this would solve most of the debris problem.

[Trann]

I generally don't worry about it. Kessler syndrome is not really a concern, you can have thousands of pieces of debris in LKO and the chances of encountering one, let alone hitting it, are remote.

That said, a lot of debris in orbit does impact performance, so I've turned the debris slider all the way down. Before I learned that trick I used to put probe cores on my final booster stages so I could deorbit them easily.

Same as above.

[Taki117]

I am happy to say that I don't have any debris left in orbit. Every stage is designed to either be de-orbited via probe core and remaining fuel, left on a suborbital trajectory with a Pe < 22km smashed into the surface of a Moon, or left attached to whatever it was lifting to be used to de-orbit the equipment upon end of serviceable life.

For any who are curious Here's my current career mission reports.

[SpacedCowboy]

That's a great idea, having fun and tidying up at the same time!

[cantab]

In career I have a bunch of debris about in orbit. Since I haven't unlocked probes, deorbiting's not very practical, and it's enough work to get where I want without worrying about which stages drop when. Although the paired decouplers connecting my Mun lander and orbiter are kind of needless littering.

I recover from Kerbin, and I'll probably terminate on other worlds, to try and keep the performance under control. If need be I'll get rid of orbiting stuff, but I like having it there for now.

[bobcook]

I try to design to avoid debris, but not always successful. It happens. Not going to lose sleep about it.

[Geschosskopf]

Were it not for the lag that builds up by accumulated debris, I'd leave it in place. I used to think it was cool to pass by relics from my space program's past, to note how discarded interplanetary boosters are now so far from home, etc. So I did everything I could to make more debris.

But it turns out that the more debris you have, the fewer real ships, flags, stations, bases, etc., you can have. So eventually I turned persistent debris off. Now I never have any at all.

[SkyRender]

It's not even remotely difficult to engineer a rocket to not leave stages lying about in orbit. Even for interplanetary missions, I try to make sure that spent drive stages will impact the target body instead of leaving them in a weird solar or planetary orbit.

[lammatt]

i dont care about debris until my mission ETA timer goes yellow. (then i go to delete the persistent debris until i get it make again)

[merendel]

I design to leave as little as possible. Larger stuff that does end up staying in orbit I leave either to salvage later if its useful or to manualy deorbit. I reserve tracking station disposal for those bits that should have destroyed on their own but forwhatever reason didnt. This last catagory includes stuff that passes through the atmosphere but does not reach the destruction limit and bits of rockets that I disposed of by impact on a surface but flung bits on solar escape trajectories.

[AlamoVampire]

i always clean my orbits up, and leave no debris in orbit OR on the ground. I do have max persistent debris set to 250, but, I never let it get even near that. The worst once was like 85-100 debris, but that was an intentional experiment to see something.

[Superfluous J]

I try to let all lifter stages fall back to the planet from which I'm launching. I won't delete anything in a stable orbit. However, anything that's orbit dips into atmosphere - even if the game won't properly handle it - I feel okay deleting from the tracking station. I also - purely from a performance standpoint - have no problem deleting interplanetary debris because if hitting stuff in LKO is remote, hitting stuff orbiting the Sun is even more so. However, if it's not too much trouble I'll happily aim my spent stages at Jool or any other nearby planet to destroy them "legit."

Also, I use Extraplanetary Launchpads so for stuff I know will be in a nice orbit, I put a docking port somewhere so I can grab it with a tug for recycling. It's generally more fun, easier, and quicker than going down to my drilling base and getting another load of rocket parts from there.

[MaverickSawyer]

Normally I try to eliminate it at the source... But this save, if it's up there, I leave it for now. I have KAS, so I may wind up doing a disposal run later. In the meantime, Kessler, eat your heart out!

[forenci]

I try to leave as little as possible. Likewise, I typically try to use parachutes to make sure all my debris makes it back safely on the ground as well. I'm curious, with the additions of contracts and money, if there will be any benefit to "saving" parts. I think it would be a really great incentive to not only ensure items get back to Kerbin safely, but it would encourage designs that limited space debris. I mean, why leave things orbiting in space if you can get it back down safely for a reward? It might also make space planes/SSTO's and re-usable space programs/launch vehicles extremely worthwhile.

[Othuyeg]

Not a major concern for me...

[wasmic]

I generally don't design to leave no debris, but I do pilot to leave as little as possible. For example, I always drop my launch stage before my periapse rises above 20 kilometers, so that it will be destroyed. I don't actively clean the debris up, though - it adds a little charm.

[Sargent890]

I normally just let the debris accumulate. I go out on recovery missions every now and then, but I find them dull. I don't like terminating objects from the Tracking Station, either, because I find that unrealistic.

[kahlzun]

I try to design to have all debris deorbited, but it can be difficult to arrange everytime, so there have been a few times i've sent out a Claw to push floating debris into a collision course.

[jalapen0]

If the game modeled small pieces, like say .5m or smaller piece of a tank, then I might worry about it. Since it doesn't (and probably can't), I don't see how Kessler would ever be a problem and I don't worry about it. It's not fun to cleanup like a new mission to Duna.

[Silverchain]

I wrote a utility to selectively remove debris. I like leaving bits and pieces scattered around the outer system as memorials and points of interest, but I often get lots of lag-inducing junk scattered around KSC and in LKO so I get rid of that and keep the rest.

[John FX]

I have 63 pieces of debris, I don`t make it explode or remove it with the debris slider. All my debris is all there is. A lot of my debris has been from slight orbital changes caused by ejecting fairings and so forth which took it slightly out of a perfect FRT and I`m just waiting for it to get ejected from Kerbin SOI, lithobrake, or burn up. I`ve removed about 15 bits this way and about 5 left kerbin SOI. I`ll put up a cleanup craft when we get the claw. It will have many detachable claws that have probe cores (depending on their weight etc) and a deorbit engine on each one. I may chase down interplanetary debris at some point just to go back to no flights (except flags) and no debris.

I`ve not left any debris for many many flights now. Either I leave a small amount of fuel and control the stage allowing me to deorbit or I fine tune the fuel levels so the stage falls back down by itself.

Due to always launching into the same inclination, even with only 63 bits I find old debris is often within 10km of my craft as it burns to circularise orbit...

[FITorion]

Combo.

I design things to be deorbited mostly... but sometimes something slips through that I forgot to add probe core to or something.

if it won't be a threat... I'll leave it... but if say it's right next to my station... it's getting deleted from the tracking station.

[NecroBones]

I have over 100 pieces of debris in total, but some of it is crashed bits from spent stages that are on moons/planets, so not really a hazard. I probably have about 20 or so spent boosters orbiting in highly eccentric orbits around Kerbin though, mostly from the early days of my space program.

Now, I design stages that I'll drop at orbital velocities (not suborbital during launch) to have small "reserve" fuel tanks attached, that are turned off. Plus, a probe controller and RTG. That way, I can come back to it at apoapsis, and turn on the reserve tank, and de-orbit the booster.

[Firedtm]

i don't play with the debris slider its still at 250, i design stuff to where it does not leave debris, if it does leave debris its orbit is partly in the Atmosphere.

only when everything fails do i leave debris in orbit, even then i try to make probes or ships to deorbit it

[The Jedi Master]

I just turn it off. It seems like more trouble than fun.