Chuck Grassley Shows NASA's Vikings How Wasting Money Is Done

There’s no shortage of ridiculous things the people that run our dear country seem do, and this one is certainly among the stranger. A U.S. Senator has asked NASA administrator Charlie Bolden to investigate whether a picture of NASA employees dressed as Vikings constitutes a misuse of government funding and employee time.

So here’s what happened. Ved Chirayath is an aeronautics and astronautics graduate student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who, like most people, has a hobby. He enjoys photography, anything from astrophotography to landscapes, and in 2011 he had the idea to merge three passions into one project. He sought out to combine fashion photography, laboratory optical effects, and science topics, and to realize the project he applied for and won two Stanford University grants totaling $4,400. The product, Physics in Vogue, is an exhibition featuring 10 images that explore “profound contemporary physics discoveries.”

Last year, with this project underway, Chirayath started working at NASA’s Ames Research Centre developing small research satellites known as CubeSats. The work reminded him of Viking explorers who, between the 8th and 11th centuries, travelled further and saw more in smaller ships than anyone who had gone before them. Chirayath felt like he and his colleagues were space Vikings, doing more with smaller satellites than their predecessors, and he was inspired to photograph his team in Viking gear.

Chirayath joined forces with the living history group Vikings of Bjornstad and recruited Ames Director Simon Worden, Chief of Staff Karen Bradford, and executive secretary Carolina Rudisel for the shoot. They all donned Viking wear and posed brandishing swords against model CubeSats hanging from a tree.

Not long after Chirayath posted the picture online, it garnered some negative responses. Specifically from Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Republican. He wanted to know why employees were engaging in this kind of non-work related activity during the workday. He also wanted to know whether or not this activity constituted a misuse of NASA funding. It didn’t. The picture was done for a not-for-profit exhibit using non-NASA funds while employees were not on the clock.

Remember that “NASA Johnson Style” video that was made by students of the Johnson Space Centre on NASA facilities with NASA footage? And the Space Oddity music video Chris Hadfield made on the International Space Station? And the time Skylab astronauts ran in circles around the inside of their space station? I don’t recall any government officials questioning whether or not these activities were responsible things for NASA to be a part of.

The obvious irony is that Grassley’s inquiry cost taxpayer money as it was done during business hours, meaning it cost time as well. It’s such a colossal waste of time over something that probably gave Ames and the CubeSats project some publicity the agency can’t afford in light of NASA’s consistently dwindling funding for outreach and education. Not every mission has Curiosity-levels of funding to make incredible videos like "Seven Minutes of Terror." There are plenty of interesting and exciting missions that the public hardly hears about because the teams just don't have money to publicize them.

For his part, Chirayath just wanted the project to get kids interested in NASA by showcasing a side of the agency that wasn’t all hyperfocused engineers and deadly serious mission controllers. That whole human aspect is what makes spaceflight engaging to the public. The Apollo astronauts did live TV broadcasts from space all the time, a non-mission specific activity that kept the public interested and increased a feeling (however slight) of ownership and participation of the space program. And astronauts now talk to students from the ISS. Mission engineers have to do media interviews to get their work out to the masses. Popularizing the mission and the agency has long been necessary, even if it isn’t strictly speaking a “mission-related” activity.

I’d say someone should inquire as to what taxpayer resources Grassley’s inquiry cost, but that would just compound the stupid. You can check out the whole Space Vikings shoot here.