Even unmanned landers have planetary protection officers overseeing missions because microbes can hitchhike on unmanned landers as well as manned landers.
To me it’s nuts. I mean, why protect native microbes? If they haven’t been able to evolve beyond the single-cell stage in 4.5 billion years, they’re not likely to. So let’s just take over the planet for us, for humans, if we can.
Good point. Btw, I understand the concern over the transfer of cooties and why spacecraft need to be clean. It’s the title, “Planetary Protection Officer” which seems a bit presumptuous. What do they do when a spacecraft fails and slams into the surface exploding, spewing nasty emissions, gases and possibly radiation everywhere? I would guess on days like that, the Planetary Protection Officer would be missing, or “elsewhere”.