Take a look at this very slick video describing the maintenance of space megastructures, and the need for space janitors.
(Megastructure Maintenance & Space Janitors)
Science fiction writers had a variety of takes on this idea. Consider the repair robots from The Invincible (1954) by Stanislaw Lem and the repair drones from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson. You might enjoy this article Antenna Repairmen In Fact And Fiction as well.
And who can resist the MSE-6 repair droid from Star Wars!
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/27/2019)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'