Yeah, I was a at conference last year where there was a talk from an existing Planetary Protection Officer at NASA. She seemed mostly concerned with what kind of cleaning procedures had been performed on the various probes that had were going to each planet/moon. Sounds like you'd have to be the one delivering bad news like: "nope, this new probe will have to miss its launch window, because the latest science we have says that microbes could survive where it's going, so we have to cook it for 5 days"
That would be an awesome business card. But the job sounds like a lot of meetings.
Yeah, I was a at conference last year where there was a talk from an existing Planetary Protection Officer at NASA. She seemed mostly concerned with what kind of cleaning procedures had been performed on the various probes that had were going to each planet/moon. Sounds like you'd have to be the one delivering bad news like: "nope, this new probe will have to miss its launch window, because the latest science we have says that microbes could survive where it's going, so we have to cook it for 5 days"
I found the conference talk online: https://vimeo.com/144769901
Was really hoping it was a Starship Trooper type role, always wanted to go fight bugs...
Positions are available: https://careers.orkin.com/
Relevant xkcd (what-if actually, but close enough): https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/
"Frequent travel may be required"
me gusta.
"ntended"
it would be nice to be an ecological judge dredd and dish out justice to polluting scum
aka MiB
Oooh, oooh, pick me!
Oh :(
Elon Musk doesn't give a shit about this.