It used to be that the discovery of an exoplanet, any exoplanet was big enough news to warrant its own discovery paper. But these days we know of so many planets that putting out an individual paper describing a newly discovered hot Jupiter is a little ho-hum. There has to be something unique about the planet to justify its own paper, otherwise it'll just be lumped in a big data dump paper.
Practical, in space. Start the ecosystem spinning, and it won't stop (essentially frictionless). Maybe a balloon/bag on one end of a rope, a weight on the other end.