The Kessler Syndrome is attractive as a puzzle theme. It implies movements of words, or parts of words, from one area of the grid to another, and that is a popular form of gimmick.
But it had proved pretty resistant to being incorporated in a grid. I had a circular version that didn’t work, followed by a sort of ‘squared-circle’ (in a normal grid) with pieces ‘falling’ from the perimeter to the centre. Neither worked because I couldn’t determine thematic material for either where the pieces started or where they landed.
This version emerged from noting that KESSLER SYNDROME + SPACE DEBRIS amounted to 26 letters, or two rows of 13. So, drop the letters of SPACE DEBRIS and leave the phenomenon en clair in the top rows. (It doesn’t matter if the letters to be dropped are out of order – it’s debris!)
Surprisingly tricky to get it to work, and I was glad to remember KSHATRIYA. BIRLER had to have both Rs unchecked, with only one dropping. BIRLED would have been preferable, but the man isn’t called Kessled.
The debris would leave gaps as it fell, so it would be tidier if it filled gaps where it landed. I dropped it right to the bottom of the grid and appended the letters to existing entries to form new words. I didn’t quite manage to avoid using one of the esses merely to form a plural, but I was pleased with MAPLES(S) – nice switch of meaning and part of speech.
Falling letters omitted in wordplay (albeit that left one monoliteral) and new words as redundant elements of ordinary clues, and there we were.
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