Guardians of the Solar System
“all of the planets, all of the time”
Without a doubt, Planetary Protection Officer is the coolest title at NASA. That office even has a catchy slogan: “all of the planets, all of the time.” In spite of that inherent coolness, until about a month ago very few people outside the space biz knew that job even existed. But when word got out that NASA was looking to hire a new head of their Planetary Protection program, the media went wild. Some of those stories were accompanied by images from or allusions to alien-themed movies like “Independence Day,” “Men in Black,” or “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Of course those pop culture references don’t quite capture the essence of what NASA views as “planetary protection.” Planetary protection, as practiced by NASA and other space agencies, is more about microbes than monsters. It’s as concerned about Earth life invading other planets as it is about protecting our own. Therefore, to stay with the movie theme, planetary protection is more like “The Andromeda Strain” crossed with Star Trek’s Prime Directive.
When in Doubt, Talk to the Experts
While I usually don’t have any qualms rattling on about topics that are beyond my areas of expertise, for this one I wanted to get advice from a real professional. For that advice I talked to a colleague and friend at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who knows a thing or two about protecting planets: Nancy Carosso.
Nancy works in the Contamination and Coatings Branch at Goddard and has been involved in planetary protection for 10 years. She started working in that field when NASA was preparing for a mission to obtain samples from the surface of Mars. Nancy was kind enough make time to answer a bunch of questions that I posed to her on what it takes to keep the solar system safe:
How do you describe the role of a Planetary Protection engineer?
A Planetary Protection Engineer generally is involved in ensuring that any spacecraft that will visit other planets (Mars, Jupiter, asteroids, etc.) is biologically free of ‘Earth-related’ spores, germs, and viruses. This involves performing sterilization of parts and components, and validating the number of spores left on the space hardware prior to launch, so that we don’t accidentally bring Earth-borne cells up to other planets. We want to make sure that any biological data gathered from those planets, are indeed constituents of those planet surfaces and atmosphere. And in turn, we want to ensure any samples returned to Earth will be ‘contained’, and not exposed to our Earth’s biosphere.
NASA uses a variety of methods to measure, control and reduce spacecraft microbial contamination for Planetary Protection purposes, going as far back as the Apollo moon missions. Assembly of spacecraft hardware is carefully controlled and often takes place in clean-room facilities using, aseptic techniques in order to meet Planetary Protection requirements. Dry heat microbial reduction techniques first used on the Viking spacecraft are still used today. Measurement techniques are cultivation-based microbial assays using well characterized biological methods.
The genesis of the need for Planetary Protection is based on a United Nations Treaty:
International Agreement on Planetary Protection
The problems of spreading Earth-origin biological materials to other planets and space in general, was recognized early in the space exploration programs of most countries, around the world. In 1967 the UN Treaty on Outer Space included a paragraph which dealt with the subject.
Article IX of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967:
“…parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose…”
What is a typical educational background for someone interested in Planetary Protection?
There are many types of educational pursuits that would qualify a scientist or engineer to evolve into a Planetary Protection specialist. Generally, biologists, chemists, astrophysicists, and aerospace/thermal/contamination engineers would have the proper educational background to learn the field of Planetary Protection.
What’s required to make an Earth probe visiting another celestial body “safe?”
Lots and lots of cleaning and sterilizing! It begins with selecting the proper materials, and designing components to be fully cleanable up to launch. There are many methods employed to ‘sterilize’ space hardware prior to launch, including high temperature ‘killing’ of residual Earth spores, and exposure of space hardware to spore-killing gases. For example, for the Viking mission, dry heat microbial reduction was employed.
What’s required to make extraterrestrial objects returning to Earth “safe?
After we’ve ensured that we haven’t brought up any Earth-borne spores, robotic mechanisms gather up samples of extraterrestrial soil and planetary gases, seal the captured samples with redundant layers of protection, and then return the samples to Earth (the Earth return of samples from Mars is a mission being planned for the future). Of course, once the returned samples land back on Earth, there are a number of protective protocols that are enacted to evaluate the samples in a ‘contained’ lab, to ensure that we don’t unknowingly introduce newly discovered extraterrestrial spores into the Earth’s biosphere.
(Jeff’s note: This is where the “Andromeda Strain” comes in!)
How are Planetary Protection requirements different for different missions?
The NASA Headquarters Planetary Protection Officer is responsible for assigning a Planetary Protection level to each mission. Each level requires a specific set of constraints which must be met. The constraints are linked to the type of mission. Below is the table of Planetary Protection levels:
Planetary Protection requirements for each mission and target body are determined based on the scientific advice of the Space Studies Board and on NASA or international policy guidelines. Each mission is categorized according to the type of encounter it will have (e.g., flyby, orbiter, or lander) and the nature of its destination (e.g., a planet, moon, comet, or asteroid). If the target body has the potential to provide clues about life or prebiotic chemical evolution, a spacecraft going there must meet a higher level of cleanliness, and some operating restrictions will be imposed. Spacecraft going to target bodies with the potential to support Earth life must undergo stringent cleaning and sterilization processes, and greater operating restrictions.
What’s the most interesting aspect of working on Planetary Protection (other than the really cool title!)?
There are a couple different ‘aspects’ of Planetary Protection that keep all of us on our toes. Firstly, performing research and testing to improve methods and technologies to address Planetary Protection provides an unending supply of brain stimulation. Secondly, allowing our minds to ‘entertain’ the idea of life on other bodies, or remnants of life on other bodies, is a mind-expanding challenge.
Other than the basic educational background, what else do you think are requirements to be a successful in Planetary Protection?
One needs an open imagination to become involved in Planetary Protection.
Anything else you’d like to share about Planetary Protection?
The prospect of finding building blocks to life (as we know it) on extraterrestrial bodies is an enthralling concept. The fact that NASA is able to design and build spacecraft to go out and explore this idea, is truly captivating. I can honestly say I’ve never had a ‘dull’ day at work.
Planetary Protection — The Next Generation
While Nancy and her fellow planetary protectors aren’t out there defending the solar system with disrupter beams, phasers or infinity stones, they still have an important and very cool job. Cool enough even to inspire a nine year old from New Jersey to write NASA asking to be considered for the position of Planetary Protection Officer.
While Jack clearly has the enthusiasm and imagination necessary for the job (as well as being a self-proclaimed Guardian of the Galaxy), as a fourth grader he unfortunately lacked the required degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics to make the cut this time around.
But don’t worry, Jack. Given the stellar qualifications you already posses, I’m sure NASA will keep your phone number on speed dial for the time when you’re ready for the job.
After all, it’s a big universe. Someone’s got to protect it.
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