Police protect the planet: Light pay high, stable to doomsday, receive 200,000 USD / year from NASA

The vague anxiety that aliens may someday not only come true but also embrace the dream of annexing the Earth always exists. Therefore, NASA has a position that not everyone knows: Police protect the planet.

Police protect the planet: Light pay high, stable to doomsday, receive 200,000 USD / year from NASA Picture 1

With a generous salary of up to 187,000 USD / year, this position actually brings a sizable income for the person in charge and stabilizes at least until the end of the world. The mission of the planetary police is to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial organisms such as bacteria, while protecting the life forms of space from ourselves.

Humans have long hoped to find life in outer space. In the Solar System alone, at least 5 planets can have extraterrestrial life. 5 planets with signs of water are Mars, Jupiter's Europa Moon, Ganymede satellite (Jupiter's largest natural satellite), Saturn's Enceladus Moon and Pluto.

The discovery and search for life requires sending robotic probes or humans to perform the task. Robots can contain bacteria, viruses or other biological contaminants from Earth and humans - no different from a huge source of pollution.

If something on Earth "strikes" on another planet, there can be two problems: It is difficult for us to be sure if a creature discovered on another planet is of primary origin. that place or just "lost" from the Earth. Second, worse is that if alien life exists, uninvited guests from Earth can pollute the environment of the new planet and even ruin life here.

Police protect the planet: Light pay high, stable to doomsday, receive 200,000 USD / year from NASA Picture 2

Guarding the planet is a completely real job.

On the other hand, pollution from outer space back to Earth is always what makes us more worried. When the astronauts made their first trip to the Moon by the Apollo ship and returned to Earth, they were isolated for 3 weeks to ensure they didn't bring any unusual creatures from the Moon.

This is not possible when the Moon is a place without air, water and thus, it is likely a sterile environment. In reality, though, something scary happened.

Apollo's crew brought the camera from the unmanned spacecraft Surveyor 3, which landed on the Moon two and a half years ago to Earth. After testing, NASA scientists discovered a small set of strep bacteria deep inside.

Strep is a species of bacteria endemic to the Moon. It is possible that the bacteria on Earth were accidentally brought aboard the Surveyor 3 and somehow survived in the Moon environment.

But further analysis shows that no scenario is right. The camera was actually invaded by bacteria in the lab after returning to Earth. However, this incident is a warning that the process of spreading bacteria or abnormal life from one world to another is very easy.

The work of the Planet Guard Police helps ensure that similar biological leaks do not occur, not only for astronauts returning from outside the planet but also for probing robots. This is especially important as NASA continues its mission to return samples from Mars long-delayed.

As the name implies, this is mostly about collecting soil and rock samples from Mars and then returning to Earth for research purposes. To prevent the spread of pollution, quality control standards will be established such as disinfection of spacecraft assembly room, parallel disinfection of spacecraft before being put into operation.

Finally, the spacecraft will self-destruct to help keep things pristine. On September 21, 2003, after 8 years of orbiting Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft destroyed itself. It plunges into the planet's atmosphere so as not to accidentally crash into Europa, Ganymede or any Jovian Moon that may contain life.