NASA喊你來當“行星保衛官”

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

美國國家航天局（NASA）正在招募新成員，負責保護地球免受外來入侵。

The full-time 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.

“行星保衛官”是一份全職工作，其工作內容包括：監督太空人員以防他們污染各行星和衛星，同時還要確保地球免受外來入侵。

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

NASA開出的薪酬高達6位數：年薪外加獎金可達18.7萬美元。

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

職位描述稱：“行星保護工作要防止人類和機器人在空間探索過程中產生的有機成分和生物污染。”

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.

“行星保護官”的工作期限爲3年（有可能會延長到5年）。而該職位是美國於1967年簽訂《外層空間條約》後設立的。

There is only one other full-time role like it in the world at the European Space Agency, says Catharine Conley, NASA’s only planetary protection officer since 2014 (according to Business Insider). She is relocating to the agency’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.

據凱瑟琳?康利稱，歐洲航天局有一項職位，是全世界範圍內唯一類似“行星保護官”的全職工作。康利是NASA自2014年來唯一一位行星保護官（商業內幕網報道），現在在NASA的安全與任務保證辦公室工作。

Under the international 1967 treaty, she explained that any space mission must have less than a one in 10,000 chance of contaminating an alien world, including making sure a robot or probe that is travelling past or photographing a planet does not cause harm.

她表示，1967年簽訂的國際條約規定，所有太空任務必須將污染外星世界的機率降低到萬分之一以下，還需確保機器人和正在飛行通過或正在拍攝的探測器也不會造成任何傷害。

“It’s a moderate level,” Ms Conley said. “It’s not extremely careful, but it’s not extremely lax.”

“該規定鬆緊拿捏得很合適。”康利說，“既沒有達到高度小心的程度，也不是非常寬鬆。”

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.

同樣，新保護官也將致力於保護地球免受火星等行星的潛在污染。據科學家稱，這些行星曾經可能被水覆蓋，有生物生存——因此，也可能至今仍有生物存活。

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.

新保護官可能還會參與到NASA即將進行的考察Europa（木星的第四大衛星）的項目中。該項目名爲Europa Clipper，投資27億美元，獲得美國國會通過，旨在測繪衛星表面並分析其可居住性。但是，行星保護官應有所準備，因爲探測器可能會與衛星表面發生碰撞。

Candidates will be required to travel frequently – but like any job, there will be a significant amount of emails, proposals and other reading.

候選人將會頻繁參與太空旅程——不過和應聘其它工作一樣，參與者會收到大量郵件、建議書及其它材料。

Candidates must have at least one year’s experience as a top-level civilian government employee, and an advanced degree in physical science, engineering or mathematics. They must also have “advanced knowledge” of planetary protection.

該職位要求候選人必須具有至少一年的高級政府僱員工作經歷，且在物理、工程或數學方面擁有高等學歷。此外，還需精通行星保護相關的“先進知識”。

The position also requires “demonstrated skills in diplomacy that resulted in win-win solutions during extremely difficult and complex multilateral discussions”. The new hire will also receive “secret” security clearance.

該職位還要求候選人具有“傑出的外交本領，能夠在非常困難和複雜的多邊討論中提出雙贏的解決方案”。招聘過程中還將“祕密”進行忠誠調查。