9-year-old NASA applicant gets planetarium job offer
Commentary: Jack Davis, self-styled Guardian of the Galaxy and NASA planetary protection applicant, is wanted by the new Liberty Science Center.
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As the job offers begin to flow, where on Earth will our young Mr. Davis land?
When one spaceship door closes, another opens wide.
Many were moved when 9-year-old Jack Davis wrote to NASA to explain that, as a Guardian of the Galaxy, he was the perfect candidate to be the space agency's new planetary protection officer.
This is a job that involves protecting our Earth against alien microbes and protecting aliens from, well, our general incompetence.
NASA decided Jack wasn't (yet) the perfect candidate as, well, he's 9, you know.
However, in has stepped the (PR department of the) Liberty Science Center near Manhattan. In a YouTube message to the little guardian, Paul Hoffman, CEO of the nonprofit, told Jack he could work at the center's planetarium right now.
Well, when he says right now, he means when it opens sometime later this year. It will be the largest planetarium in the western hemisphere, says the LSC, and Hoffman wants Jack to be its official kid science advisor.
"Give me a call and we can work this out," Hoffman says in the video.
The science center has also sent Jack a letter and is waiting for his response.
My attempts to reach Jack were unsuccessful. As a Guardian of the Galaxy, he's likely quite busy. Moreover, he's already admitted that his sister thinks he's an alien, so he could be anywhere.
Still, Jack lives in New Jersey and the Science Center is in Jersey City, so he'd have a short commute.
My one concern, if I were his agent, would be whether the science center would match the six figure salary offered by NASA for the planetary protection officer job. So I asked.
"We are not offering a salary," a science center spokeswoman told me, adding that the LSC "would love to have him as a kid advisor, until he heads off to NASA in many years!" The canny spokeswoman said the center hasn't yet heard from Jack.
Drive a hard bargain, Jack. You don't want to let those earthlings take advantage of you.
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