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TheCrimsonSteel t1_jbymxam wrote

Reply to comment by CollegeIntellect in Scientists call for global action to clean up space junk by thebelsnickle1991

Man, one single post scratching every itch in my brain - nerdy generalist, mat sci engineer, and gamer. I do love Reddit

I'm guessing, depending on details, that ballistic shielding is generally designed to not cause further debris and sort of optimized for toughness? Assuming it doesn't impact the base protection and functionality of protection

And now I'm super curious about debris fields and tracking, I knew we did some amounts, may have to go on a nerd rabbit hole

It is good to hear we're doing a decent amount of 25 year self termination plans. I vaguely remember there being something of a "graveyard orbit" do you know if those are those deeper orbits, or do we try to make those also into one's that'll self-deorbit?

There's a niche of Kerbal players that love shooting for hyper realism. I'm more on the end of let's see what the existing engine can do and engineer something that functions on wonky mechanics and not so much real life. Like mass driver designs that are just... broken

And any resources to recommend from real life aerospace physics that'd improve my Kerbal skills? I'd love to improve my gravity slingshot game

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CollegeIntellect t1_jbys1jx wrote

The shielding is really just two plates slightly apart from each other. When the debris strikes the first plate it vaporizes and the second plate catches the vapor. It’s called a whipple shield. That first plate prevents back splash when it strikes the second plate. This minimizes debris going back to space.

Graveyard orbits are for geostationary satellites. That are farther out, if I remember correctly, than the standard GEO orbits. Those are premium orbits. They are tightly regulated. Unfortunately, those are way to far out to deorbit on their own. It’s something like a millennia or more before perturbations could cause it to deorbit. Going out to gather them and bring them back is a waste of current resources, hence the graveyard orbit.

If you’re looking to take some real life Aerospace knowledge into kerbal. I recommend searching for “patched conics”. This matches how kerbal models their system and will allow you to understand how they get to their dV calculations plus do slingshots in the game.

You’re in luck too, one of my favorite channels just dropped a video on space debris and debris shields here: https://youtu.be/_FFNz2q7F88

Source: https://ai-solutions.com/_freeflyeruniversityguide/patched_conics_transfer.htm

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TheCrimsonSteel t1_jbz3c6m wrote

Thanks!! And nice, I keep forgetting to sub to Real Engineering. I've stumbled onto his channel like 5 or 6 times now

If you don't know them already a few other favorites of mine are Smarter Every Day, Practical Engineering, and Kyle Hill

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