I don't know enough about the former to have any kind of opinion on it, but I do know enough about the latter to know that protecting extraterrastrial worlds from contamination is a real and serious problems when sending various probes to them.
9-year-old applies for NASA position NASA's job posting for a planetary protection officer led 9-year-old Jack Davis to send in an application letter. http://www.theage.com.au/video/vide...applies-for-nasa-position-20170807-4wvpp.html