FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

These Photos of NASA Staff Dressed Up as Vikings Started a Congressional Investigation

We can rest easy knowing taxpayers aren't subsidizing a Space Vikings photo shoot.
Photos by Ved Chirayath

I guess Congress must not have a lot of pressing concerns right now, because Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa is taking the time to investigate a series of photographs of NASA staff dressed up like Vikings.

The senator came across several photographs of Simon Worden, the director of NASA Ames in California, and other members of staff adorned in Nordic garb, armed with shields and swords, preparing for an impending satellite invasion. The photo series, called "Space Vikings," was shot last year by photographer Ved Chirayath, a graduate student at Stanford.

Advertisement

What Senator Grassley wants to know, the Washington Post reported yesterday, is why are NASA employees spending their time posing as Vikings—and, more to the point, are they doing it on the taxpayers’ dime.

"I am concerned that in NASA's case, federal tax dollars may still be spent on non-mission critical activities," Grassley wrote in a message to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, according to the Post. He wanted to know if the photo shoot was done on company time or with company resources.

The short answer? It wasn't. I got in touch with Chirayath, who told me in an email that "no NASA or other governmental or organizational funds, resources or employee time were used to make these pieces. All images appearing in the finished pieces feature my own images, captured with my telescopes and are not NASA imagery."

A spokeswoman at NASA confirmed that the shoot wasn't an official NASA activity, no taxpayer dollars were used, and the employees did it on their own time.

Put in other words, it was all in good fun.

The photos are part of Chirayath’s ongoing science outreach exhibition called Physics In Vogue, funded by a university grant. Space Vikings was the second installation of the four-year project, which Chirayath said he started the project in part because NASA couldn't afford to promote their own missions this way.

The idea behind the Physics In Vogue exhibition is to create visual representations of complex science, he told me. The images capture physical phenomena, missions, and projects, along with the people behind them. The concept of the Space Vikings series (you can see the rest of the photos here—seriously worth a look) was to show how NASA researchers personify the Viking spirit of exploration and adventure, but in the modern space age.

Advertisement

"The next generation of small satellites, known as CubeSats, float above and herald a new era in space exploration and science. These CubeSats can be launched into Low Earth Orbit at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems, allowing more frequent, and more accessible scientific missions," the photo caption explains.

Unsurprisingly, Chirayath is none too happy about the sudden government investigation into his work. "More was probably spent in taxpayer employee man-hours investigating me, my exhibition, and those involved than it might have cost them to do it themselves,” he said. He told the Post that NASA investigators interviewed him and combed through his emails relating to the shoot.

Probing NASA isn't uncharted waters for Grassley, a ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. Last May he sent a letter to NASA inquiring about "troubling allegations" made by whisteblowers that Google executives were getting a sweetheart deal on planes leased by NASA’s airfield. "Whether the taxpayers are unfairly subsidizing a private company and whether a government agency is loose with data security are serious contentions that deserve full exploration and answers," he wrote on his website.

Thanks to the senator's thorough oversight, we can rest easy knowing taxpayers aren't subsidizing a Space Vikings photo shoot.