Our Man In Black

bot writes "A recent Slate article covers the onerous responsibilites of the Planetary Protection Officer. He is tasked with preventing contamination of earth by alien organisms, and 'forward contamination' (contamination of other planets with earth germs). There is also a published protocol (PDF link) for avoiding Martian bugs."

Comments

Does NASA have too much money?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Since 1998, the space agency's planetary protection officer, or PPO, has been John D. Rummel, an astrobiologist and a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. This is actually his second tour of duty at NASA

So, he's protecting which planet from the threat of contamination from whom exactly? Ok, I'm sure NASA would be wise to think of the consequences of landing man-made things on Mars, but as long as real flesh-and-blood humans don't set foot on the planet, isn't bathing probes in radiation enough to render their outer shells and innards sterile?

I mean, it's like if I hired a lawyer for when I plan to be very rich, but I'm not yet and yet I pay the lawyer right now. How bizarre, I say having a full time "planetary protection officer" is a feel-good-look-good measure that's just a waste of taxpayer's dollars in reality.

Re:Does NASA have too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think you quite get the jist of his job. Say a probe lands on Mars and brings back some rock samples to Earth. Unfortunately, the probe stepped in something nasty, and brought back Mars Anthrax as well.
In addition, some benign fungus got attached to the probe just before we packed it up and sent it to mars. Unfortunately, the fungus is not so benign to the Martian plant life and wiped out entire ecosystems there.

Re:Does NASA have too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Carl Sagan (as well as a few other prominent astronomers in the 60s) was one of the initial supporters of this - especially when they started sending missions to the moon. His big fear was that we would destroy any other-worldly life forms before we had a chance to detect them (forward contamination). As quoted in his biography, in the 60s they would basically just burn all the germs off probes going up by heating all the components, problem was this made missions more expensive and difficult, especially sterilizing things like cameras and such.

Initially there was a plan to keep all astronauts quarantined for a time period after their return to earth (backward contamination), but that went out the window in part for PR reasons. When those 'superman' astronauts came popping out of their capsule for the TV cameras, they didn't want to show them being hustled off in decontamination chambers. So much for safety first!

Re:some people

[obey13]

The need to prevent forward contaimination is a legitament concern. What happens in the future when we do find some kind of organism on mars, and it simply came from earth?

Plus, we simply do not know enough about the planet from our limited excursions to discount anything.

Re:some people

[Anonymous Coward]

Also makes me wonder if the rest of the world is in on this. Shouldn't we elect this guy ??

Well, if you read the article carefully you'll learn that the UN's COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection is actually responsible for setting the policies -- so, the rest of the world is "in on this". This guy does happen to chair that panel; however, in his capacity as NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, his only role is to implement guidelines established under the auspices of the UN.

Re:Avoiding???

[nizo]

There is also a published protocol (PDF link) for avoiding Martian bugs.

Sadly, at the rate we are preparing to actually send people to Mars and bringing them back, I am betting this won't be a problem for the current holder of the officer, or his next eight successors.

Re:Wildfire?

[Gorobei]

The chance of an alien microbe getting a toehold on Earth is pretty much zero. Most every niche is filled by a lifeform that has four billion years worth of ancestors that didn't die before they breed.

If a Martian microbe shows up, it gets eaten in 30 seconds by some terrestrial super-optimised (for earth) bug. The martian bug's super radiation protection, cold-protection, etc, just means it has misallocated resources for the terrestrial environment.

Notice that people get infected by bugs that have evolved attacking animals similar to people (e.g. primates, mammals, some birds.) The nasty ones come from animals similar to us. We have little to fear from reptile bug, less from plant bugs, and nothing to fear from things that attack fungi. Martian bugs would be like tourists from Iowa trying to infect New York City.

Planetery protection officer

[sshtome]

Am I right in thinking that this man has the job of protecting us all from the invasion of microscopic organisms that have never been discovered?

That NASA have spend astronimical amounts of money only to fail to discover anything more dramatic than a prehistoric sea on mars.

Despite, the possibility to the contrary, and the fact that it fits with the current scientific trend of "you are not special", there is actually a good chance that there is no life on mars.

I understood that all of the evidence of life on mars (ie the rocks with 'fossils' in) were found to be aincient air bubbles or something.

I quite like the idea of life on other planets, and "forward contamination" sounds like a bad thing... but really! is there anything that this man can do to protect us against aliens currently have only been found in science fiction books?

I bet he reads slashdot alot at work (flame me!).