NASA Is Looking For Someone To Protect Earth From Aliens -- And the Job Pays a Six-Figure Salary (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Ever fancied yourself as a bit of a hero? How about the protector of mankind? Well now NASA is looking for just that -- and it'll pay a six-figure salary for the honor. The U.S. space agency is currently in search not of life on other planets but of a "Planetary Protection Officer," who can protect Earth and its inhabitants from alien invasion. The job, which is offering a salary of between $124,406 and $187,000 per year, involves preventing alien microbes from contaminating the Earth, as well as ensuring human space explorers do not damage other planets, moons and objects in space. "Planetary protection is concerned with the avoidance of organic-constituent and biological contamination in human and robotic space exploration," NASA wrote in the job posting on its website late last month. Other duties include advising Safety Mission Assurance officials on planetary protection matters and ensuring compliance by robotic and human spaceflight missions.

Comments

Re:It's a colorful way of describing a mundane job

[Gilgaron]

I thought it was odd the emphasis on physical sciences and engineering versus experience in microbiology or infectious disease. A university biosafety officer is going to understand how to sterilize things better than a physicist.

Job Description:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

The actual details of what the job involves or how to do it is unknown. But the position has absolutely no power or authority to do anything. But the applicant must be prepared to be the fall guy and take full responsibility if anything goes wrong that can be blamed on her/him.

Re:Yawn

[Rei]

Most of the work of planetary protection is just the opposite, preventing Earth microbes from contaminating other worlds. It's just a fancy word for sterilization of spacecraft, and it's stupid that Slashdot is trying to play it up like this. It's like someone who knows nothing about computers writing an article about Google posting an ad for a webmaster, with the headline "Google Seeks Man To Rule The Web!"