Patrolling the final frontier

THE US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is offering a six-figure salary for an out-of-this-world role: that of planetary protection officer (PPO).

A dumbfounded President Donald Trump couldn’t hide his confusion. He thought that the US already had a super-secret agency called the Men in Black that did precisely that. Having been assured that it did not exist, he grudgingly gave his assent to the project. In fairness, however, the president had been boning up on space issues. He had recently been reading a book on anti-gravity which he’d found difficult to put down.