Orbital debris

[herbal space program]

I just terminate it. The thought of spending all the time required to de-orbit it gives me indigestion, and I can't stand having it all cluttering up my orbital view.

...Of course since I started my last game with hard settings, I have actually recovered some stages for money reasons, but I can't say I've found that very fun. So far, the most fun thing about hard mode has been trying to rescue a kerbal from LEO without RCS or the maneuver node.

Edited January 22, 2015 by herbal space program

[Raven.]

About a year ago, I was paranoid about debris. In fact, the shuttles that I was using at the time would jettison their fuel tanks and boosters before orbit insertion, so that crap would just fall back and hit Kerbin.

Now, I really don't give a care in the world. In fact, the only orbits that I make an attempt to clean up are the space station orbits. Lol I even got 5 m fuel tanks from KW rocketry floating around.

[moogoob]

I try to make my upper stages have enough battery & other junk to successfully deorbit itself when it's not needed. If I forget, I don't worry too much.

I DO have lots of Interstellotron (transfer stage) drop tanks in all sorts of orbits around the solar system, though. I don't even try to ensure those burn up.

[GreeningGalaxy]

For small stages, I use spammed sepratrons to deorbit them. However, I notably haven't built a rocket small enough for that to work in so long that I haven't really done that recently. Some of my semi-recent multistage launch vehicles have only been designed to get some kind of ridiculously powerful KSPI ship away from KSC/out of the atmosphere before turning on the main engine, so none of the stages ever reached orbit besides the main ship. My most recent launch vehicle designs have been fusion-based SSTOs, so one of these days I'm going to try a SpaceX-style landing post-ascent. With a proper KAS crane and docking ports, maybe I could even use the same exact booster multiple times! Yeah, no.

[Trann]

I just turn the debris slider way down in the settings. AintNobodyGotTimeFoDat.avi

I agree. The above is a missing poll option: Set debris count to 0.

[rabidninjawombat]

My current save has an extremely bad case of Kessler Syndrome It adds more challenge, ive come withing a few hundred meters of hitting some debris on a few launches

[Itsdavyjones]

My current save has an extremely bad case of Kessler Syndrome It adds more challenge, ive come withing a few hundred meters of hitting some debris on a few launches

Well, then its just going to get worse as time goes one, sounds fun though.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Itsdavyjones
stupid double in the same post

[Moar Boosters]

Most of it just gets left.

I try to make my rockets seperate the payload at around 70km - 30km orbit, so every now and again I'll go into the tracking station and deorbit these parts by using time acceleration until the re-enter.

Anything that reaches a full 70km - 70km orbit just stays there. I expect once I get bored of doing contracts I'll send up a giant ship to clean stuff up with.

[Madrias]

I've left a lot of debris up there in orbit, but every now and then, I send up some ships to shove it back into the atmosphere.

Otherwise, I don't give a krap, it can float up there all it likes. It's more fun that way. Having an empty Double-Orange+Mainsail stage smash into your station sets up a perfect rescue mission.

[Dudicus]

By early/mid-game, i'm pretty much solely using ssto lifters with probe cores. once they separate from their payload, they de-orbit and parachute completely intact close to the KSC.

[Starwhip]

Most of my debris gets deorbited with careful planning. My transfer stages smack into bodies being transferred to, and my lifter ones, back into the original planet. Whenever possible. If not, I usually have a probe core for deorbiting.

[LaytheAerospace]

My 100km equatorial orbit is usually absurdly crowded. You can actually see debris from just about any point it's so thick.

Given that I just reset my save after each patch and rebuild my ships, it's never been much of a problem. Anything I'm sending to another planet parks at 605km, which I also don't bother to clean up but is big enough that nothing ever enters physics range.

[eddiew]

I drop the lifter stage when my periapsis is 10-18km. Stage Recovery mod usually gets me a decent refund, and I don't have to faff around deorbiting stuff manually. My transfer stages are also de-orbit stages at the destination, so nothing is left floating, anywhere, ever

Sometimes fpr things that I want in HKO with full fuel, I'll put a probe core on the lifter, circularise, then send the it home when the payload is where it needs to be.

Not that I have performance issues with debris, it's just so darn messy

[Baenki]

All 3 apply to me. I build my stages to be able to deorbit them or stage them off before entering orbit.

Every debries that is in a stable orbit and can not be deorbited stays there. I don't go out of my way to retrieve debries, as we don't do it in reality.

I either try to move probes to a graveyard orbit, fling them into solar orbit or deorbit them. If dV is insufficient the probe is stuck where it is.

I only end flights if they are in unstable orbits but too high in athmo to be auto-deleted.

[Voyager55]

I've actually had a station destroyed by debris, I nearly had a heart attack when it happened, I was docking an SSTO with my station when I see the yellow object marker closing in at what looks like 3-4 K/s and before I have time to react there's a direct collision loud bang and bits flying everywhere.

And has this inspired me to pay more attention to my debris situation and take action to reduce the issue? No.... not in the slightest:D

[Lhathron the Elf]

I've actually had a station destroyed by debris, I nearly had a heart attack when it happened, I was docking an SSTO with my station when I see the yellow object marker closing in at what looks like 3-4 K/s and before I have time to react there's a direct collision loud bang and bits flying everywhere.

And has this inspired me to pay more attention to my debris situation and take action to reduce the issue? No.... not in the slightest:D

That's insane to me that that could have happened... I would imagine the chances of that happening are extremely slim, unless you happen to put things in the same basic orbit any time you fly anything (which I usually do), in which case it would make a little more sense.

That is really awesome, though.

[Voyager55]

Insane indeed, 100% my fault though! Virtually everything I make goes into a lazy 80K orbit and I'm incredibly wasteful and excessive with my staging. It was pretty awesome though.

[Axelord FTW]

Lift stages are usually recovered via Stage Recovery.

The final circularization stage I usually add a probe core to and deorbit it later.

As for random stuff like Separators or spent drop tanks, I either ignore or delete them (depends on how I feel). I still do try to make it so that anything I drop will eventually hit some planetary surface and get rid of itself.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Axelord FTW

[General Rarity]

I put my debris slider on unlimited and barely get any problems. Probably because all my launchers are mostly reuasable.

Most of my debris in orbit are fairings for engines or (very rarely [ha]) a payload fairing. I use FAR and DRE.

[KerBlam]

Aint nobody got time for that.

[sedativechunk]

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the OFFICIAL sequel to the smash hit blockbuster "Gravity"...

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Coming soon to select theaters

[Freshmeat]

I terminate with extreme prejudice. Once, I accidentally a Mun orbital station while clearing out debris from the tracking station, because the amount of debris was large enough to make my mind slip.

[JupiterII]

I just leave it there, I like how Kerbin looks with rings.

I remember when debris first came out I would make ships that would eject decouplers everywhere, with the sole intent of creating debris.

[Caelib]

The likelihood of hitting any debris is extremely slim. You can always adjust the game settings for max debris = 0 if you don't want to deal with it.

[[email protected]]

None of the above.

I design my lifters to stage the boosters low in the atmosphere, my fairings at 70 KM and my ascent stage at an apoapsis of 100 KM with a periapsis of -10 KM. My payload then uses a tiny fraction of its fuel to put itself into a 100 km x 100 km orbit (or 150 x 150, 200 x 200, etc).

Sometimes for Keosynchronous orbits I will have a small solid stage built in to deorbit spent stages.

If I am leaving Kerbin SOI the transfer state wiill not stage until after escape velocity has been met.

I've had a couple of orbital collisions with debris that killed two crews of Kerbals back in .18 or .19...and resulted in a very expensive space station being destroyed. So I take this to a degree of seriousness that others may not.

Edited January 29, 2015 by [email protected]