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Solar System

NASA has a peak-tier task opening for a Planetary Protection Officer, a position you've likely never heard of and that might, at outset glance, sound like something of a joke. The position, however, dates back to the Outer Infinite Treaty of 1967, and NASA is one of merely 2 space agencies to have a full-time position defended to the role (the ESA likewise has a full time PPO).

So what does a PPO really do? Here's how NASA's job posting describes the position, which pays from $124,400 to $187,000:

Planetary protection is concerned with the abstention of organic-constituent and biological contagion in human and robotic space exploration. NASA maintains policies for planetary protection applicable to all space flying 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 [i]ntended to render to World and its biosphere with samples from extraterrestrial targets of exploration. This policy is based on federal requirements and international treaties and agreements.

In other words: The PPO makes sure that Earth is not contaminated past extraterrestrial life forms that might arrive via meteorite or be deliberately brought back to Earth for further analysis. At the same time, information technology ensures that the vehicles and satellites we send off-planet are as "make clean" equally possible, to limit the hazard of introducing our ain life forms into the ecosystem of another planet. This means the PPO is finer involved in many of the considerations that go into planning a remote exploratory mission, from ensuring that the vehicles on the launch pad take been sterilized (or as shut as is plausible) to planning the road the spacecraft will take.

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This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Big Sky" site, where its drill collected the mission'south fifth gustatory modality of Mount Sharp. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA has good reason to be careful. The last affair we would want is to detect life somewhere in the solar system, only to find that it was something from Earth that had managed to survive on a unlike moon or planet. This isn't especially fanciful; there are microbes on our own planet that survive in conditions vastly different from those that typify Earth'due south surface. It is therefore not crazy to think that some microbes from our own planet could take root and prosper if they encountered similar atmospheric condition elsewhere. Similarly, alien microbial life could potentially take root hither (and some accept argued that life on Earth was transplanted here from elsewhere, a theory known every bit panspermia).

If you've got the appropriate chops to apply for the position, it's linked above. NASA'south FAQ most the post is hither. It'due south a temporary role that'southward typically three years long, with an choice for an boosted two years.