KSP gave me the exact same impression, but there's one thing I wonder about: with sufficiently smart global optimization algorithm, maybe a collector craft could approach and collect several targets on a low Δv budget? It's not something you could do manually, but space has also this nice property that you can predict trajectories accurately far in advance, so it may be amendable to optimization.
Wonder if there's a paper somewhere that computed possible Δv requirements for a collector if you squeeze your flight plan very tight.
(Also in-orbit refueling will change this equation a lot. You could keep a bunch of such collectors continuously in space, and wait for the trash to align right. There's no hurry.)
Wonder if there's a paper somewhere that computed possible Δv requirements for a collector if you squeeze your flight plan very tight.
(Also in-orbit refueling will change this equation a lot. You could keep a bunch of such collectors continuously in space, and wait for the trash to align right. There's no hurry.)