A … Cancel Search. NASA HQ Planetary Protection Officer | Careers | Astrobiology For this job, you must be an American citizen, have a degree in physical sciences, engineering or mathematics. NASA is hiring someone to protect Earth from aliens NASA Dr. J. Nick Benardini is the Planetary Protection Officer for NASA and the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. In this role, he oversees the responsible exploration of the solar system by implementing and developing efforts that protect the science, explored environments and Earth. NASA's Planetary Protection Officer | Science | AAAS NASA named Dr. J. Nick Benardini as the agency Planetary Protection Officer within the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, effective June 7. NNSA coordinates its activities with partner government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One such mission is ARM, which will acquire a multi-ton boulder from the surface of an asteroid. This is an official U.S. Navy website (DoD Resource Locator 45376) sponsored by the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer (DON CIO). NASA is hiring Planetary Protection Officer to protect earth “We will then actually use the gravitational mass of that multi-ton boulder and the spacecraft to alter the trajectory of the parent asteroid in a deflection … NASA’s planetary protection officer will defend Mars, not Earth