Nasa is hiring someone who can defend Earth from alien contamination. 

 

美国国家航天局（NASA）正在招募新成员，负责保护地球免受外来入侵。

 

The full-time¹ role of "planetary protection officer" will involve ensuring that humans in space do not contaminate planets and moons, as well as ensuring that alien matter does not infect Earth. 

 

The pay is a six-figure salary: as much as $187,000 a year plus benefits. 

 

The job post reads: "Planetary protection is concerned with the avoidance of organic-constituent and biological contamination in human and robotic space exploration." 

 

The three-year position - with a chance to extend it to five years - was created after the US signed the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

 

Similarly, the new employee would work to protect Earth from potential contamination by planets like Mars, which scientists say may have once been covered in water and supported life - and there may be chance of life there now. 

 

The new hire will likely be part of the upcoming Nasa expedition to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The $2.7bn Europa Clipper mission, approved by Congress, plans to map the moon's surface and analyse whether it could be habitable. The probe could crash land, however, which is a circumstance the planetary protection officer should prepare for.

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