Enter The Harvesters

Some days ago I read a news that the US government is allotting budget to 'harvest' nonfunctional or cancelled satellites for future uses. This gave me an idea of what might be a future job demand -- space harvesters.

Basically, Space Harvesters are just like garbage collectors in urban cities but instead of garbage trucks they use spaceships or high-altitude planes in their garbage collection.

They would need specially designed ships with remotely controlled appendages to handle the trash. They would also need special suits in case manual collection is necessary.

On special occasions some satellites would need to neutralized, for example, when a satellite has an auto-defense mechanism. These would need special units for evading and inactivating these defenses prior to collection.

Soon, "garbage collection" will be financed via a bounty system-- that is the Space Cleaners who collect and return the satellite junk will be paid bounty.

I could almost see a scenario not unlike those in Cowboy Bebop or Moby Dick and especially Space Cowboys.


Newslink:
US 'harvesting' canceled satellite for future uses