NASA is looking for a Planetary Protection Officer:
This position is assigned to Office of Safety and Mission Assurance for Planetary Protection. Planetary protection is concerned with the avoidance of organic-constituent and biological contamination in human and robotic space exploration. NASA maintains policies for planetary protection applicable to all space flight missions that may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft, which are intended to return to Earth and its biosphere with samples from extraterrestrial targets of exploration. This policy is based on federal requirements and international treaties and agreements.
Resulting in headlines like:
Nasa Is Hiring a Planetary Protection Officer to Save Earth from Aliens
NASA is hiring a Planetary Protection Officer to protect Earth from alien harm
Nasa offering six-figure salary for new 'planetary protection officer' to defend Earth from aliens
NASA has a job opening for someone to defend Earth from aliens — and it pays a six-figure salary
For more intrigue, the job requires a Secret clearance.
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NASA's Planetary Protection Officer has suggested that it's time to contaminate Mars slightly aggressively before humans arrive with their microbiomes in tow:
Is there life on the surface of Mars? The clock is ticking on scientists' window to solve that long-standing question before astronauts—and the microbes that live on them—contaminate the planet. Today, at a meeting in Washington, D.C., of NASA's planetary science advisory committee, the agency's new planetary protection officer raised the possibility of opening up a few of the planet's most promising regions to more aggressive exploration.
Just a few weeks into the job, Lisa Pratt, formerly a geomicrobiologist at Indiana University in Bloomington, has signaled that she wants the office to be open to the notion that a degree of contamination might be necessary to explore several of the planet's most habitable spots. Previously, the office has served as a watchdog to prevent the contamination of Mars and other planets with microbes from Earth, and vice versa. But now, time is pressing, given NASA's long-term goals, Pratt says. "No matter what we do, the minute we've got humans in the area we've got a less pristine, less clean state," Pratt said at the meeting. "Let's hope we know before the humans get there, one way or the other, if there is an ecosystem at or near the surface."
Although no region of Mars is banned for exploration, international treaties set the allowable levels of microbial contamination on robotic spacecraft destined for other planetary environments. Some scientists say it is too costly to meet the sterilization requirements to explore the potentially warm and wet "special regions" on Mars that are most likely to harbor microbes. Only the 1970s Viking landers achieved the cleanliness necessary to explore a special region. A growing number of scientists have argued that the agency needs to rethink its plans, as Science reported last year.
Related 2013 paper: The overprotection of Mars (DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1866) (DX)
Previously: NASA Posts Planetary Protection Officer Job Position
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:02PM (5 children)
Notwithstanding the headlines in the press, the role is about ensuring our filthy habits don't contaminate off-world areas.
In other words: NASA is hiring someon to save aliens from Earth!
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:07PM (4 children)
Read the description more carefully and you'll find it's about contamination of Earth with alien organisms as well.
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(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:44PM (1 child)
That's gonna take a pretty high wall
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @01:25PM
Trump will make the aliens pay for it.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Friday August 04 2017, @09:18PM (1 child)
True - sillily enough I had actually seen that. I just discounted it on account of not having been applicable (as far as I know) since we stopped visiting the moon.
I do think in practice the job is virtually only protecting the rest of the universe from us.
Or does anyone know of any missions planned by NASA to return to Earth with specimen from beyond Earth?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday August 05 2017, @01:21PM
OSIRIS-REx [wikipedia.org] is an asteroid sample return mission that was launched last year. It will reach 101955 Bennu in 2018 and attempt to scoop a sample and return it to Earth around 2023. I can't imagine the Planetary Protection Officer is going to hit the panic button on that one.
And here are a couple of missions [wikipedia.org] that have nothing to do with NASA:
2017
China Chang'e 5 – China's first lunar sample return mission
2020
China Chang'e 6 – Lunar sample return mission
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:18PM
Now, lookie here, folks! [youtube.com]
And... umm... yes, hire a decorator to come here quick, 'cause... dam' [youtube.com]
(you reckon the new recruit will make into a promising rookie?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 03 2017, @12:49PM
But at least it's form fitting. [amazon.co.uk]
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 03 2017, @01:27PM (7 children)
Hey, I've never lost a planet yet!! I've still got all of them that I started out with!!
(Old joke about the Marines - they've not lost a gate yet.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday August 03 2017, @01:53PM (5 children)
Air Force have lost a Stargate or two before.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 03 2017, @02:46PM (4 children)
Yeah. The Air Force lacks the centuries of tradition that the Navy and Marines enjoy. Hell, even the Army has traditions to uphold. We might ask the Buzzard which army it is that hasn't returned to the US since they lost their flag in Korea. Seventh, I think, but not sure, and to lazy to look it up. Traditions are valuable, man, and the Air Force isn't old enough to have any.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @03:05PM (2 children)
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash. -- attributed to Winston Churchill
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 03 2017, @03:10PM
Uhhh, you do realize that old Winnie was something of an English Puritan. His problem was, he didn't get enough rum, sodomy, or the lash. He grew up feeling unwanted and unloved.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 03 2017, @03:32PM
Keep talking,
HowellWinston... almost done.... keeeeeep talkinnnnnggggg.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emh75AYxnzk [youtube.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday August 04 2017, @04:00AM
Kawoosh is the sound the Stargate makes, and the sound of the joke going over your head.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Funny) by bryan on Thursday August 03 2017, @04:52PM
Tell that to Pluto.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by DmT on Thursday August 03 2017, @11:13PM (1 child)
They should do the opposite. Send life to other planets.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 05 2017, @04:25AM
That doesn't make a lot of sense at this time. Nowhere we can send probes to right now has good conditions for life. Mars may be the place friendliest to life (other than Earth) and it sucks worse than Antarctica right now. And we need to keep probes sterile so we can determine if life already lives in underground oceans on Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Enceladus, Titan, Rhea, Dione, Ceres, etc. Determining this will help us understand how to approach other solar systems and tell us if we should exploit the resources in our own solar system with impunity.
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday August 04 2017, @01:55AM
So the job requires "Secret clearance" which is just below top secret. That means handling quite sensitive stuff. And the policy is to not let the public know of any impending doom. So don't trust the government but investigate the celestial objects through other means.
And this officer will have the hands full when people lands on Mars and then returns. Wiping out most of the bugs on or inside a human just can't be done without killing the person. Given the circa ~10 year timeline that means being really busy to figure out how to deal with it. Any Apollo style quarantine is not likely to do it this time as the Moon is a lot more sterile than Mars.