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Space Science

Our Man In Black 179

Posted by timothy from the don't-trust-'em dept.
bot writes "A recent Slate article covers the onerous responsibilites of the Planetary Protection Officer. He is tasked with preventing contamination of earth by alien organisms, and 'forward contamination' (contamination of other planets with earth germs). There is also a published protocol (PDF link) for avoiding Martian bugs."
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Our Man In Black More

Our Man In Black

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  • Ok... (Score:5, Funny)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 ) <g.ryan@macetech.com> on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:11PM (#8934061) Homepage Journal
    That would be the job to have, if only for the right to list "Planetary Protection Office" on your resume.
  • James T. Kirk.

    --AC

  • Wildfire? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:12PM (#8934072)
    Okay. Anybody suddenly thinking of the Andromeda Strain [amazon.com] now? :)
    • Anybody suddenly thinking of the Andromeda Strain [amazon.com] now? :)

      Me: Should I have?
      You: It's the coolest book in the galaxy! It made the Amazon top 100 list... She's interesting enough for you, old man.
    • No, but Invasion of the Body Snatchers [amazon.com] comes to mind.

      It's interesting from the perspective that when the fungus comes to earth it is already too late to do anything about it.

      I haven't seen the latest version [barnesandnoble.com] though.

    • Re:Wildfire? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Gorobei ( 127755 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @08:59PM (#8935205)
      The chance of an alien microbe getting a toehold on Earth is pretty much zero. Most every niche is filled by a lifeform that has four billion years worth of ancestors that didn't die before they breed.

      If a Martian microbe shows up, it gets eaten in 30 seconds by some terrestrial super-optimised (for earth) bug. The martian bug's super radiation protection, cold-protection, etc, just means it has misallocated resources for the terrestrial environment.

      Notice that people get infected by bugs that have evolved attacking animals similar to people (e.g. primates, mammals, some birds.) The nasty ones come from animals similar to us. We have little to fear from reptile bug, less from plant bugs, and nothing to fear from things that attack fungi. Martian bugs would be like tourists from Iowa trying to infect New York City.

      • Re:Wildfire? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jandersen ( 462034 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @06:03AM (#8937176)
        Apart from the fact that the worst flu comes from birds (which are more closely related to dinosaurs than mammals), that is.

        Your argument, while well formulated, is wrong - an organism isn't fundamentatlly better protected against microbes that are specific to their own species. The immune system is best at protecting against attacks from enemies it already knows from previous experience, it's as simple as that. That is why emerging diseases are so devastating.

        It is true that eg. a virus is best at attacking certain hosts, but as we have seen many times in the past, they can evolve and jump to another species, and we know of no reson why a virus shouldn't be able to jump between widely seperated species. We simply don't know.

        As for whether a Martian microbe would be able to get a foothold on Earth: there are places on Earth that might be favourable to it - a dry, cold valley on Antartica, for instance. Again, we simply have no knowledge about it. And while some - like the Bush administration - seem to be in favour of just rushing in and get stung, I personally think it is better to at least try to think a little ahead and avoid some of the most obvious risks.

      • Re:Wildfire? (Score:5, Informative)

        by hey! ( 33014 ) on Thursday April 22, 2004 @06:45AM (#8937304) Homepage Journal
        OK, IANAE but here goes.

        The chance of an alien microbe getting a toehold on Earth is pretty much zero. Most every niche is filled by a lifeform that has four billion years worth of ancestors that didn't die before they breed.

        Too optimistic, not based on actual experience.

        Examples: fragmities, cane toad, zebra mussel, weird and untreatable hospital infections. West Nile Virus.

        Actually, being highly tuned to a particular ecological niche doesn't protect an organism from anything but incremental changes in local fauna or flora. In point of fact, alien organisms (in the sense of from different ecological systems), if they can survive often end up growing explosively.

        Why? pertty much everything in a mature ecology is food for something else. Animals on the top of the food chain are food for microbes. Usually microbes aren't a limiting factor in an undisturbed ecosystem because these animals also usually have evolved a conservative reproductive strategy: modest litters at infrequent places. WHich is what makes top level predators easy to endanger.

        However, if you take an critter from the middle of the deck, or worse yet the bottom, their strategy tends to be predation limited or resource (therefore competition limited) or both, not reproductively limited. They are also limited by specific competitive defenses evolved by cohabitors of their particular niche. Which is why you don't see only one kind of critter or one kind of plant occupying a niche exclusively (which by your logic should be the norm), but usually there are many varieties predators, grazers, trees whatever, although one may be predominant. For example in the woods near my house there is both hickory and sumac, although they have overlapping niches.

        The problem with an alien organism is that if it is naturally resource limited rather than reproductively limited, and has resoruces to exploit in its new home, there will be no factor checking its growth until it consumes all of the available resources.

        I happen to work in the public health field, although I am not an epidemiolgist. We often remark that the unprecedently huge population of the human race is a microbe's bangquet. Space microbes do not concern me unduly, and the steps being taken by NASA seem prudent and sufficient. However we DO face potential threat from "alien" microbes that are released by ecological disruption. There are cases of permanent benign infections in remote populations that form a kind of symbiotic biological defense against incursion. Hanta virus definitely fits this pattern, it is possible the Ebola may as well.

        The destruction particularly of tropical habitat, with its greater biodiversity and fiercer competition, is a public health concern. These places in past were avoided by humans because they were "pestilential". People who explored these regions often came down with infections, usually malaria but very often some unnamed agent. In addition to the loss of biolgical resource, the things that are released by these incursions, combined with rapid global travel, should be a serious concern. Ebola is, in a sense, too aggressive to be a global danger, but a bug like the 1918 influenza in its characteristics would be very dangerous indeed. Expect over the next decade a number of new stories about novel tropical infections, hopefully none spreading too far beyond their origin.

        So, in short, from an ecological perspective your optimism is not warranted. Yes, the most likely situation is that a new bug will die out. However, if it doesn't die out it will very likely be a major problem, although not necessarily to human health.

  • Men In Black (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hogwash McFly ( 678207 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:12PM (#8934074)
    Don't the Men In Black remove their fingerprints? But what if this guy makes a bomb that will kill us all? [slashdot.org]

  • Simple (Score:2, Funny)

    by tdemark ( 512406 )
    He is tasked with preventing contamination of earth by alien organisms

    Couldn't he just watch this movie [imdb.com]?

    - Tony

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TexasDex ( 709519 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:16PM (#8934100) Homepage
    ...it's too late! The ailiens are already here! See?! They left this mark on me! I must do their bidding...
    • Now that I've seen this modded up informative, I'm really starting to wonder just what kind of a community this is...
      • What are you talking about? It is informative!

        </mindcontrol entity="ailiens">
        <sanity>

        You should already know what kind of community this is... and it should be no surprise.

        All informative means in this case is that somebody with mod points has a sense of humor.

    • Re:But... (Score:4, Funny)

      by AaronStJ ( 182845 ) <AaronStJNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @11:31PM (#8935912) Homepage
      "...it's too late! The ailiens are already here! See?! They left this mark on me! I must do their bidding...
      </sanity>"

      Looks to me like you actually closed your sanity tag well before the start of you post...

  • You'd think I'd learn... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ibullard ( 312377 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:16PM (#8934102)
    First I find out that being a spy isn't all about gadgets and women. Then I find out being an archaeologist isn't all about running from traps and nazis'. Now I find out that protecting the earth from alien life forms doesn't involve talking to alien dogs and bug guns.

    WHY DO YOU LIE TO ME, HOLLYWOOD!!!
    *sob*

  • I want this job (Score:5, Funny)

    by unformed ( 225214 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:17PM (#8934103)
    What better way to pick up chicks than "It is my civil duty to protect you from alien lifeforms."
  • Since 1998, the space agency's planetary protection officer, or PPO, has been John D. Rummel, an astrobiologist and a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. This is actually his second tour of duty at NASA

    So, he's protecting which planet from the threat of contamination from whom exactly? Ok, I'm sure NASA would be wise to think of the consequences of landing man-made things on Mars, but as long as real flesh-and-blood humans don't set foot on the planet, isn't bathing probes in radiation enough to render t

    • Re:Does NASA have too much money? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:29PM (#8934199)
      I don't think you quite get the jist of his job. Say a probe lands on Mars and brings back some rock samples to Earth. Unfortunately, the probe stepped in something nasty, and brought back Mars Anthrax as well.
      In addition, some benign fungus got attached to the probe just before we packed it up and sent it to mars. Unfortunately, the fungus is not so benign to the Martian plant life and wiped out entire ecosystems there.

      • Seriously, how realistic are these goals, and how realistic are they (NASA) being in pursuing them?

        Let's start with the lunar landings in the late 60's. As I recall, there was concern about bringing back some lunar germ (however unlikely), so they quarantined the crew -- after they exited from the craft, walked in the open (with lunar-exposed gear), and only then entered the quarantine trailer.

        Next, how sterile is the stuff we've been sending various places? In various documentaries and reports, there a

      • Mars: 1
        Earth: 1

        Looks to me like tie.

    • Re:Does NASA have too much money? (Score:5, Informative)

      by the arbiter ( 696473 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:33PM (#8934232)
      1. No, bathing probes in radiation is not enough to sterilize them, unfortunately. 2. NASA's planning on sending back samples from space and from the surface of Mars. Better have a protocol and procedure by then! Pay some now, pay much more later.

    • Re:Does NASA have too much money? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Carl Sagan (as well as a few other prominent astronomers in the 60s) was one of the initial supporters of this - especially when they started sending missions to the moon. His big fear was that we would destroy any other-worldly life forms before we had a chance to detect them (forward contamination). As quoted in his biography, in the 60s they would basically just burn all the germs off probes going up by heating all the components, problem was this made missions more expensive and difficult, especially
    • a friend of mine once worked at a place that does sterilization for hospitals. catheters, needles, that sort of thing.

      their treatments were extreme: ethylene oxide (nasty compound), cobalt 60 radiation, ultraviolet, antiobiotic sprays, you name it. they would place swabs of bacterial samples through out the items to see if indeed they were getting sterilized.

      the fact is, they were never able to kill everything; this is a well known fact within that little niche industry. there are simply bacteria that

  • So... (Score:3, Funny)

    by rasafras ( 637995 ) <(tamas) (at) (pha.jhu.edu)> on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:18PM (#8934111) Homepage
    ...what's his letter?

    Perhaps.... N?

  • Avoiding??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by El_Smack ( 267329 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:20PM (#8934131)
    "protocol for avoiding Martian bugs"?!?

    Didn't NASA just spend a couple hundred million bucks trying to *FIND* Martian Bugs? Crap, when a few ice crystals were found, JPL wet itself. Had we found an actual bug, who knows what kind of party would have been thrown?

  • Big problem... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bigman ( 12384 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:24PM (#8934154) Homepage Journal
    That meant not only protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial microbes that could cause disease, but also protecting other planets and cosmic objects from organisms native to our world.
    Well that's going to put a crimp in my plans for terraforming Mars & Venus.. Anyone want to buy some cheap land??
    • > terraforming Mars & Venus... Anyone want to buy some cheap land??

      Sure. As soon as you can have it surveyed and marked by a licensed professional.

  • at first glance (Score:5, Funny)

    by ErichTheWebGuy ( 745925 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:27PM (#8934174) Homepage
    I thought it said something to the effect of "he is tasked with spreading Earth germs to other worlds". Talk about spreading your seed!

  • Forget the Mars mission (Score:5, Funny)

    by xs650 ( 741277 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:27PM (#8934178)
    "Rummel has two primary tasks: to ensure that outbound spacecraft aren't contaminated with biological material from Earth "

    Humans are biological material. So much for the manned mission to Mars.
    • Rummel has two primary tasks: to ensure that outbound spacecraft aren't contaminated with biological material from Earth ....... Humans are biological material. So much for the manned mission to Mars

      Not to mention all the crap that falls off everybody in our day to day existence.

      And don't troll me with "speak for yourself", all humans shed skin cells and hair without knowing it. Not to mention what happens when you sneeze or cough. Or flu season etc. etc.

      Doubt me still? Try cleaning your keyboard someti
    • He'll make sure to heavily radiate manned missions, and then he'll hand the PR off to NASA TV for all the studio shots of Mars when they "arrive".

  • Ants in the Apollo 11 Crew Quarantine Module (Score:5, Informative)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:28PM (#8934185)
    I think this person has an impossible job.

    Years later, astronaut Buzz Aldrin said in a television interview that the mobile quarantine trailer in which the Apollo 11 crew was isolated had one serious flaw: Ants appeared to be going into and out of the trailer (37). If there were any Moon bugs, they would have gotten out with the ants. -- from The dilemma of Mars sample return [acs.org]

    Add to that all the meteorites that fail to stop at the agricultural station on their way in, and I'd think the Earth is already pretty contaminated.

    I'm not saying that he should not try to reduce cross-contamination, only that its not an easy job.
    • Who knows, maybe life on Earth is the contamination from another planet.
      • > Who knows, maybe life on Earth is the contamination from another planet.

        Which is another argument for being very careful about forward contamination. "There Exists Life On Mars" is a Very Big Hypothesis.

        As much as I'd like to see human exploration of mars, if I go to Mars, and I find bacteria there, I'm going to have a hard time proving they're Marsbugs, not Humanbugs.

        If I radiation-bake a robot, and send it to Mars, and it finds bacteria that aren't rad-hardened, the case for life on Mars is m

    • RTFA (Score:3, Informative)

      by boarder ( 41071 )
      Well, as impossible as the job might be, this position wasn't around during the Apollo days. The article clearly states that NASA didn't consider Lunar bugs to be much of an issue, since it is a very hostile place for life. It wasn't until the Viking landers leaving for Mars that this position was developed.
    • welcome our ant overlords
    • Don't meteorites get hot enough as they enter the atmosphere to destroy any life-form of a similar nature to those on earth?
      • Read the parents website, apparently the heat alone is not enough to sterilize it. Apparently even though 1/4 of Vikings budget was spend on sterilization they still think that some viable spores survived the entire trip to mars. It really makes you think after reading that article how very possible it is to really be safe from extraterestial material.

  • Trip to mars (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:31PM (#8934214)
    So what now? When I get back from my trip to Mars am I going to be met with a trafic jam and need to get my shipped checked for aliens hidding in the engine, and stashes of martian drugs?
  • I think it'll be a bit hard to prevent when sending people. And no doubt there will be some jerks protesting a Mars landing on the infintesmal chance that there *might* be some particles of pre-animate matter laying around just waiting to get wiped out by human diseases.

    • The people will be in spacesuits. That makes it easier. I guess the main problem would be stuff coming out of the spaceship or base as people exit from it. Perhaps disinfection of the outside of the space suit, tools and on the way back samples can be done in the airlock. I certainly don't think it's unsolvable.

  • What kind of a position is this, exactly? (Score:3, Funny)

    by LithiumX ( 717017 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:38PM (#8934274)
    So is this guy considered a respectable functionary at Nasa who provides insurance over an uncertain but scientifically-possible threat? ... Or is he the guy who got stuck with the weird job? The sort of post they give someone who got caught stinking of the restroom one time too many?

  • Mars Terraforming Debate (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Voivod ( 27332 ) <cryptic.gmail@com> on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:45PM (#8934318)
    I saw him not too long ago since he participated in the Mars Terraforming Debate [slashdot.org] in Mountain View CA covered on Slashdot. It's great to see that NASA not only has someone on the job, but they are participating in public conversations about these questions. Very smart, funny guy. This must be one of the coolest job titles on the planet.

  • First Draft of the Prime Directive? (Score:5, Informative)

    by David Hume ( 200499 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:51PM (#8934362) Homepage

    The NASA Requirements for Protecting Life on Other Bodies [nasa.gov] could be the First Draft of the Prime Directive [startrek.com]:

    As suggested by NASA's Michael Meyer, there is an ethical component to decisions we make as we move outward from our planet to explore other worlds. As such, NASA's Planetary Protection Advisory Committee has a bioethicist on it. The first cases of interaction between life from two worlds could happen as we explore Mars, or perhaps Europa. This will likely be limited to simple lifeforms. At some point we'll have to deal with more complex issues.


    As indicated, dealing with simple life forms does not present many of the issues addressed in the Prime Directive [70disco.com]:

    As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.


    • "no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture."

      The Prime Directive is an ethical cop out. It cherry picks the issue of interference, making the easy decision of whether to intervene when intervention is unneccessary, in the case of "healthy development". It avoids the moral dilema of how to act in the case of unhealthy development. It does not address the truly difficult eithical questions: How are we to distinquish healthy from unhealthy development ?

  • Worst jobs in science (Score:5, Interesting)

    by farnerup ( 608326 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:56PM (#8934401)
    This is #17 in The worst jobs in science [popsci.com] list.

  • I'll bet the poor guy is underappreciated (Score:3, Funny)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:57PM (#8934403) Journal
    Greenpeace sinks ships and stages disruptive protests, but I'll bet they've never so much as sent a nice thank you card to their Planetary Protection Officer.

  • Disaster (Score:5, Funny)

    by Luguber123 ( 203502 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @06:59PM (#8934418) Homepage
    Imagine what he's got to do to get fired from such a position.

    • Re:Disaster (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Black Jack Hyde ( 2374 )
      Imagine what he's got to do to get fired from such a position.

      Something along the lines of "missed a step during Martian rock decontamination; 5 billion people dead" will probably get him a verbal warning at least.

    • He won't get fired, his job will likely just get "outsourced".

      To where, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing there's SOMEONE out there willing to work for four or five human brains a day.
  • There was a guest opinion article that explained why we shouldn't go to Mars because we could bring back life that fucks up our ecosystem.

    I think its was sad ignorance; articles like this one show that people who think NASA is that stupid are morons themselves.

  • oh i know! (Score:2, Funny)

    by aqui10 ( 725199 )
    So i guess thats bye bye dennis rodman!
  • Ritual hazing in the MIB agency or the alternative to desk duty when on suspension if u'r an MIB agent?

  • This is outrageous (Score:4, Funny)

    by aled ( 228417 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @07:43PM (#8934761)
    I do program my own bugs, thank you very much. I don't think we need some outshored martians to do it.

  • Great job title, but bad for traffic stops... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sam Nitzberg ( 242911 ) on Wednesday April 21, 2004 @11:22PM (#8935872)
    I would feel bad for this guy whenever he gets stopped by a cop......

    Cop: Are you are aware you were doing 45 in a 40 - zone?

    The NASA guy: ummm. no, but if you say so...

    Cop: Where were you going ?

    The NASA guy: home - I'm going home from work

    Cop: So, where do you work?

    The NASA guy: I'm the planetary protection officer - it's my job to protect the earth from interplanetary biologicals and contamination

    Cop: OK buddy, we're going downtown....

  • I finally feel safe now.
  • Am I right in thinking that this man has the job of protecting us all from the invasion of microscopic organisms that have never been discovered?

    That NASA have spend astronimical amounts of money only to fail to discover anything more dramatic than a prehistoric sea on mars.

    Despite, the possibility to the contrary, and the fact that it fits with the current scientific trend of "you are not special", there is actually a good chance that there is no life on mars.

    I understood that all of the evid

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