The Worst Job Of 2075: Landfill Miner
Ryan Heshka
More than one futurist has predicted that after we earthlings have used up all our natural resources, we'll be forced into mining our old capped-and-sealed trash dumps. It's going to be one stinky job. But it won't be unprecedented.
In the 1980s, officials in Collier County, Florida, tried to mine their local landfill to see if they could profit from the buried paper, plastics and metal discarded years before. "It was beyond imagination in terms of disgusting," says J.W. Spear, Sr., an environmental engineer who has worked on several large-scale landfill projects. Besides dealing with the suffocating stench, landfill miners must don class-C biochem suits to contend with pockets of volatile methane gas, not to mention the highly toxic trash slurry known as leachate.
"What coffee is to coffee grounds, leachate is to trash," Spear explains. "In Florida it would spray out onto the workers, and I can tell you that's no fun to work with." (To practice at home, mix motor oil, antifreeze, a soiled diaper and your kitchen garbage, then shake, stir, and spritz.) To make matters worse, the materials that Florida officials hoped to resell were so foul (duh) that there was no market for them.
from Reidsville, NC
Honk if you think there will be a civilization capable of sophisticated technology 100 years from now! I suspect an engineered virus/bacterium will get us all before deadly nano bugs are developed.
The zero gravity toll on the body does not have to be part of that job description. A crew on its way to mars will very likely be housed in a rotating spacecraft creating artificial Mars level gravity. Depending on the mission design and cost, the crew may return home in zero gravity, but then the hardship would be no worse than what Jim Voss described for his 2001 job (i.e. having to take it easy for a few weeks after you've returned to Earth).
Note that although likely that Mars Gravity (roughly 1/3 of the Earth's) is sufficient to prevent these physiological effects, it has not been conclusively demonstrated yet. Earth orbit experiments with small mammals in artificial gravity, on the ISS or free flying, could help answer that question.
My thoughts are:
1. Politicians: with the growth of the internet, media etc. ; who knows, maybe we can impeach or fire politicians by having them rated out of 10 on the internet.
2. Environmentalists: By 100 years I don't think it would be the happiest of jobs with figures of impending doom hovering over their heads.
I think the duration in space problem will be solved by gene therapy. Popsci reported before how we were able to turn off the genes that STOPPED muscle growth resulting in that famous muscular dog photo, I think we could do something similar for astronauts in space. Nothing in the human body happens on accident, theres code in there for everything so bone and muscle loss too can be pre-programmed I think.
The Marstronaut job will not be as bad as stated because the travel time can be cut to just 2 to 5 months using nuclear electric or nuclear thermo drives.
As for muscle and bone atrophy solving that is easy just spin the ship about it's long axis during cruise.
it's very unlikely NASA will attempt a manned mission to mars with out a little help from the atom.
They also missed a another nasty very near future space job.
Private and Government LEO and lunar space vehicles will require cleaning and refurbishing after their mission for reuse.
Now the bad part the vehicle will have trash that has been stored for anything from 3 days to 6 months and up to two weeks of freeze dried if your lucky waste in the WCS holding tanks.
They might find it easier for processing to just store it as a liquid easier to off load but it will smell even with chemicals.