Now hiring: planetary protector

There’s a vacancy at NASA, and it may have one of the greatest job titles ever conceived: planetary protection officer.

It pays well, between US$124,000 and US$187,000 annually. You get to work with really smart people as part of the three- to five-year appointment but don’t have to manage anyone. And your work could stave off an alien invasion of Earth or, more important, protect other planets from us.

U. S. President Donald Trump has expressed bullish enthusiasm for America’s space program, signing an executive order last month resurrecting the National Space Council, on hiatus since the 1990s, and gleefully discussing the prospect of sending people to Mars. His proposed budget for NASA seeks a slight funding reduction overall, though he wants to realign spending to focus on “deep space exploration rather than Earth- centric research.”

So how does t he oneperson Planetary Protection Office fit in with NASA’s broader objectives?

Catharine Conley, t he NASA scientist in this role for three years, has spoken candidly about i ts scope and responsibilities, telling Scientific American in 2014 that her focus is to ensure the agency’s activity complies with a 50- year- old international treaty that set standards for preventing biological contamination outside of Earth and safeguarding the planet’s biosphere from any alien life.

The magazine a s ked Conley about Mars, where NASA has deployed exploratory spacecraft and robots since the mid-1970s to search for clues about the existence of water, prospects for habitability and any existence of life.

“The l anders,” Conley explained, “were packaged and put inside a bioshield and baked in an oven to kill all organisms — a ‘ full- system sterilization,’ we call it.”

Sending anything from Mars back to Earth presents risk. The planetary protection officer will be instrumental in creating the tools and rules to reduce it.