NASA is looking for a space captain to lead an ‘interplanetary treasure hunt’ on Mars
Now hiring: Director, Mars Sample Return Mission.
Requirements include a bachelor’s degree and occasional travel.
It’s no joke. NASA wants to bring Martian samples back to earth and is looking for someone to captain the mission, according to a listing on the U.S. government’s official job board. Its chief goal? “Hunting for signs of ancient Mars life,” Space.com reported.
NASA is willing to pay between $182,424 and $188,066 a year for the right candidate, who will be based in Washington D.C. and design, develop and implement the MSR program from start to finish.
The candidate should have considerable experience with space flight programs and mission development, according to the job listing.
A bachelor’s degree in a related science field is also required — just not in engineering technology, the listing states. The application period closes Feb. 5.
The director will lead what the European Space Agency has dubbed a three-fold mission. ESA is partnering with NASA on the project.
Phase one is NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission, which will “explore the surface and rigorously document and store a set of samples in canisters in strategic areas to be retrieved later for flight to Earth,” the ESA website states.
That launch is scheduled for July with the rover landing on Mars in March 2021, according to ESA.
NASA invited students to name the Mars 2020 rover at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year. A public voting for the finalists closes Monday, and the winner will be announced in March.
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Phase two is where the hunting comes into play.
Officials described it as an “interplanetary treasure hunt” in which another small rover will fetch the samples that have been collected and stored by the Mars 2020 rover. Next it will take the first step in getting the samples back to Earth by loading the samples into a canister and launching them into orbit around Mars.
Nothing will actually return to Earth until phase three, when ESA will launch something to “capture the basketball-size sample container.”
“The samples will be sealed in a biocontainment system to prevent contaminating Earth with unsterilized material before being moved into an Earth entry capsule,” according to ESA.
If all goes according to the current plan, Space.com reported the samples will arrive on Earth in 2031.
Until now, scientists have only been able to study Martian soil from meteorites that hit Earth, according to Business Insider. Rovers like Curiosity have also been able to beam data it collected back to earth.
ESA said bringing samples to be studied on Earth beyond the “miniaturized rover laboratories” will help scientists identify hazards in the dust of the soil that could negatively impact humans or equipment on future missions.
“The samples would also help inform how to use resources on the planet, an essential aspect of creating a self-sufficient environment for long-duration stays on Mars,” ESA said.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 12:14 PM with the headline "NASA is looking for a space captain to lead an ‘interplanetary treasure hunt’ on Mars."
