A single screw from a defunct satellite rockets through space at thousands of kilometers a hour on a geosynchronous orbit. A civilian transport space shuttle breaches the atmosphere. This trip was meticulously planned and prepared for some time now. No one knew, the plan brought the ship in direct intersection with the screw. Breaking through a window, the screw depressurizes the entire passenger section to zero. Earth is surrounded by throusands of objects like this.
In the year 2075, a career path some could follow would be Space Debris Collector. A thankless job, looked down upon, and few wanting to tolerate being space garbage people. For the ones who must, they will risk their own lives to collect a single screw. It's tough, it has to be done.
This scenario is based on a Japanese television show called "Planetes," ancient Greek for wanderers. Based on the original story by Makoto Yukimura, the show follows a crew of space debris collectors as they risk everything to collect garbage. I watched this series and knew, this will truly be a job some day. Especially after reading about the thousands of objects Nasa is tracing in orbit.
Russia must have watched the show too. That have just announced that they want to build a "POD" that will orbit the earth and collect all the orbiting space bullets it encounters. Nuclear powered, at $2 Billion dollars, this machine will stay in orbit for 15 years and hopefully will clean it all up. Or so Victor Sinyavsky, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, believes. He goes on to say, " The corporation promises to clean up the space in 10 years by collecting about 600 defunct satellites on the same geosynchronous orbit and sinking them into the oceans subsequently."
I hope someone, or something, is up there cleaning up before we all head into space for our regular global commuting.
Cabe
Pic from Planetes, Copyright there of Sunrise Corporation