NASA recently posted a job opening to hire a Planetary Protection Officer. This person will be responsible for protecting Earth from alien contaminants.
The job application has officially closed but we thought we would share the information anyway. It seems too good to be true, like something out of a movie but it really is a real job! Maybe not as glamorous as being an Avenger but still pretty cool.
NASA posted about the position in July on USAJOBS. Technically the position won’t mean dealing with actual aliens because (and this depends on your beliefs) we have not been made aware of their existence. It will however involve a lot of decontaminating of alien microbes to avoid Earth being contaminated and vice-versa.
The position will entail travel to space centers around the world and analyse planet-bound robots, just to make sure we don’t contaminate other planets either. The Planetary Protection Officer will also assemble a team that will be responsible for establishing the equipment, protocols, and procedures to reduce contamination risks.
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
The job was only open to U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals and has some seriously high requirements. Like at least one year of experience as a top-level civilian government employee, an advanced degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics and extensive knowledge of planetary protection and all it entails. The salary was pretty high though, from $124,406 to $187,000 a year, plus benefits.
There are some bizarre jobs out in the world, some seem too weird to be real. What is the strangest job you have ever heard of?
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