NASA is hiring more men in black
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Paging @jaloopa
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@blakeyrat will apply, and will become the first 👽 penetrating MIB for espionage
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From the article:
The job, which is offering a salary of between $124,406 and $187,000 per year, involves preventing alien microbes from contaminating the Earth, as well as ensuring human space explorers do not damage other planets, moons and objects in space.
Oh hi there, ridiculous clickbait headlines.
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I think I've heard an interview on the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe with the current or previous planetary protection officer.
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@jaloopa These guys are working to prevent we from spreading life to other planets. I disagree with what they are doing.
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@masonwheeler said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
as well as ensuring human space explorers do not damage other planets, moons and objects in space.
Kind of hard to do that from Earth. I'm assuming that even without this new position, the astronauts would know not to blow up the moon (unless it's absolutely necessary, or would look extremely cool)
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@hungrier From https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about
To accomplish these goals, the Office of Planetary Protection is involved in many facets of mission development that include assistance in the construction of sterile (or low biological burden) spacecraft, the development of flight plans that protect planetary bodies of interest, the development of plans to protect the Earth from returned extraterrestrial samples, and the formulation and application of space policy as it applies to planetary protection.
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:books[reading]: :postal_horn[posting]:
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@hungrier said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
I'm assuming that even without this new position, the astronauts would know not to blow up the moon (unless it's absolutely necessary, or would look extremely cool)
For some reason, reading this reminds me of The Tick...
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@masonwheeler E_SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON_NOT_FOUND.
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@hungrier said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
I'm assuming that even without this new position, the astronauts would know not to blow up the moon (unless it's absolutely necessary, or would look extremely cool)
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@jaloopa These guys are working to prevent
weus from spreading life to other planets. I disagree with what they are doing.FTFY.
But don't ask me why that is. I don't know the specific rule. Something to do with whether "we"/"us" is the object or the subject of the sentence, I think.
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@jaloopa These guys are working to prevent we from spreading life to other planets. I disagree with what they are doing.
Accidentally
I can't find the actual clause right now, but I'm reasonably sure this means we don't want to introduce any lifeforms which evolved on Earth to other potential biological systems without proper prior study of it. This would risk exterminating any non-Earth life forms before we can properly study and understand them.
Any such study would be a huge boon to biological research, potentially bringing new discoveries about nature of living systems we would never be able to make just studying the one lone path that life took on Earth. As a different concern, any Earth life that might succeed in thriving somewhere else could potentially evolve into something outright deadly to all life on Earth without any of the environmental pressures present on Earth.
I have never heard of any space agency or nation explicitly stating that colonization of other bodies in the Universe is bad in any way in itself. It's just that we don't want to do it accidentally.
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@onyx the two things they're worried about are forward contamination (introducing Earth life to another planet) and back contamination (introducing alien life to Earth)
As you said, accidental forward contamination would ruin a lot of potential research if it went to a planet that already had life. Some people think this might have already happened to Mars as we weren't always as careful as we are now, and bacteria are hardy little buggers. That concern means any potential discovery of life on Mars in the future would be under scrutiny unless it's completely different to all known Earth life.
Back contamination could be harmless if the life is too different to us to be able to infect us, or it could be devastating in the same way as invasive species introduced to new environments on Earth. There's no way to know until we actually find the other life and study it. This is why astronauts should never remove their helmets even if the air seems breathable
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@jaloopa said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
back contamination
I have not addressed this point as I was replying directly to @wharrgarbl 's complaint. Not that it's not valid, mind. ;)
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@zecc said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@jaloopa These guys are working to prevent
weus from spreading life to other planets. I disagree with what they are doing.FTFY.
But don't ask me why that is. I don't know the specific rule. Something to do with whether "we"/"us" is the object or the subject of the sentence, I think.
There is no rule, english has no central authority and I write it aniuei I wanti and fãk tose rul3z
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@jaloopa in summary, they want to prevent something cool to protect something we already know isn't there
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@wharrgarbl What's the something cool?
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@jaloopa spread bacteria to another planets and see what happens
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@wharrgarbl Nothing to stop that happening as long as they first do their best to ensure there's no native life on the planet in question
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
something we already know isn't there
Do we? There are places on this planet which we thought were sterile until recently that turned out to be teeming with life:
(NatGeo because that's the first article where I found the date without needing to dig deeply. It's 1977 btw.)
Also, organic molecules seem to be kicking around quite happily in extreme conditions such as vacuum at near-0K temperatures:
Yes, another pop science source because I'm lazy today.
So yeah, I wouldn't be so sure. I don't expect the Martians pulling out tripods out of their garages any time soon, but there is potential for primitive life being all over the place.
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@jaloopa said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@wharrgarbl Nothing to stop that happening as long as they first do their best to ensure there's no native life on the planet in question
if they aren't still convinced there isn't anything at mars, they'll never be
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@jaloopa spread bacteria to another planets and see what happens
Experiment: spread some bacteria on Mars, waited 10 years.
Result: Mars now seems to have some bacteriaFascinating.
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@zecc said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
@jaloopa These guys are working to prevent
weus from spreading life to other planets. I disagree with what they are doing.FTFY.
But don't ask me why that is. I don't know the specific rule. Something to do with whether "we"/"us" is the object or the subject of the sentence, I think.
There is no rule, english has no central authority and I write it aniuei I wanti and fãk tose rul3z
We rely on peer pressure and bullying. Now, conjugate those verbs and hand over your lunch money.
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@anonymous234 said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
Experiment: spread some bacteria on Mars, waited 10 years.
Result: Mars now seems to have some bacteria
Fascinating.Yes, it is. And it can slowly adapt to it's environment. It would be even more interesting if we could live enough to see how it evolves after a few million years.
@onyx said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
So yeah, I wouldn't be so sure. I don't expect the Martians pulling out tripods out of their garages any time soon, but there is potential for primitive life being all over the place.
If there is, they are unlikely to be outcompeted by our foreign bacteria. And if it happens, it wouldn't be a big deal, just natural selection at work.
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@boomzilla said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
We rely on peer pressure and bullying. Now, conjugate those verbs and hand over your launch money.
There are billions of launch money to be bullied out of NASA
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
And if it happens, it wouldn't be a big deal, just natural selection at work.
If that happens, I'd rather someone watch it and get some potentially useful data out of it then just say "Meh, extraterrestrial bacteria... Oooooh, but look, E-Coli, cooooooooool!"
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
There are billions of launch money to be bullied out of NASA
Envious, much? Also, you know their funding pretty much sucked for decades now, at least compared to the "moar guns!" and similar funds.
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
There are billions of launch money to be bullied out of NASA
Wowww... paging @Groaner.
@onyx said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
Envious, much?
Man, that went over your head at supersonic speeds.
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@onyx said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
If that happens, I'd rather someone watch it and get some potentially useful data out of it then just say "Meh, extraterrestrial bacteria... Oooooh, but look, E-Coli, cooooooooool!"
If E-Coli adapts to the martian environment it would be cool, but in your opinion we would keep searching for something that isn't there.
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@heterodox said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
Man, that went over your head at supersonic speeds.
I noticed the joke. I still found the (possibly unintended) implication of "NASA gets all the cash" annoying.
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
If E-Coli adapts to the martian environment it would be cool
You can simulate that right here rather easily, ya know?
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
but in your opinion we would keep searching for something that isn't there
Potential findings would undoubtedly be more interesting than bacteria evolving to eat something else than usual. I've heard about nylonese, and guess what? Same old Earth bacteria, but they can eat plastic. Which is cool, yes, but in the end it's just Earth bacteria who are less fussy eaters.
@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
Ugh, couldn't find a comb that day. Worst. Hair day. Ever. I apologize to all viewers/readers for that.
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@wharrgarbl said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
It would be even more interesting if we could live enough to see how it evolves after a few million years.
That a lot of viewings of
stuartk-59719 from Los Angeles, CA said:
I loved this movie! But I *strongly* recommend the Director's cut, which is the full 128 minutes. They cut out a lot of stuff for the theatrical release, but every bit of it was key to the story, and totally relevant to the plot.
I will freely admit that the actors lay it on a little thick in places, but it all works out in the end.The humor is, understandably, a bit dry, but ultimately I think that's exactly what the audience is hoping for, so it works well.
Warning: The NR rating is completely justified; there is stripping involved, but (sadly) most of it happens off-camera.
I had a feeling of what the 'big reveal was going to be, long before the ultimate un-masking, but it was a satisfying finish nonetheless.
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@onyx After their first mutation they are no longer earth bacteria, they'll earn their martian citizenship
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@onyx said in NASA is hiring more men in black:
As a different concern, any Earth life that might succeed in thriving somewhere else could potentially evolve into something outright deadly to all life on Earth without any of the environmental pressures present on Earth.
The idea of extraterrestrial invasive species killing all bacteria (and by extension every other living being) on Earth seemed a bit scary.
Then I remembered that a genetically engineered airborne bacterium that kills all of humanity is a much more real threat, and has been for quite a while. So that's a relief.