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9-yr-old writes application to be NASA’s planetary protection officer

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9-yr-old writes application to be NASA's planetary protection officer

A nine-year-old boy identified as Jack Davis, has written an application letter to American space agency NASA, with the hope of securing the six-figure job as the new ‘planetary protection officer’ to defend Earth from alien contamination.

Davis, who is currently a fourth grade student living in New Jersey and will probably have Top Secret security clearance before he manages to pay off student loans, made a pretty convincing case for why NASA should hire him” in his letter.

Clearly surprised that the best applicant so far happens to be a nine year old boy from New Jersey, NASA’s James L. Green, Director of the Planetary Sciences Division, wrote back to Davis to encourage his love of science and space.

While the reply didn’t include a formal job offer, it also wasn’t exactly a denial. The only logical explanation is that NASA is simply working out the logistics of hiring a fourth grader.

Read also: NASA offers six-figure salary for ‘planetary protection officer’ to defend Earth from aliens

The full-time role of “planetary protection officer” will involve ensuring that humans in space do not contaminate planets and moons, as well as alien matter infecting Earth.

The pay is a six-figure salary, as much as $187,000 (£141,000) 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, vowing to “pursue studies of outer space 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.”

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