Planetes / Yukimura, Makoto

"Mankind has established a base on the Moon and manned missions to Mars, and now prepares to travel further into space than ever before. Fulfilling his lifelong dream of space exploration, young Hachimaki makes the cut for the Von Braun Jupiter mission, forcing him to confront his own limitations beyond the farthest frontier. Back home, his compatriots Fee, Yuri, and Tanabe stare down the United States military, refusing to abandon their mission clearing space debris in the face of a war that threatens to set off the Kessler syndrome, trapping Earth forever behind a wall of deadly space debris!"--Amazon.com.

"It's the 2070s, and mankind has conquered space, making interplanetary travel possible and igniting the imaginations of the world. It's also vastly increased the amount of dangerous space debris, and someone has to clean it up. Hachimaki, Yuri, and Fee are a crew on that beat"--OCLC.

Hachimaki, hoping to be part of the exciting colonization of outer space in 2070, instead finds himself as part of a crew charged with keeping the frequently traveled space lanes free of debris, along with Yuri, a man hoping to find some trace of the wife he lost in a space travel accident, and Fee, who takes pride in her profession.

Spiritually bankrupt, young astronaut Hachimaki finds himself turning to Tanabe, a girl he once found annoying, for support as the first manned mission to Jupiter draws near.