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3,009 Words In Scott Kelley's Trivia From Space Contest Rules

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 22, 2015
Filed under ,
3,009 Words In Scott Kelley's Trivia From Space Contest Rules

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly Kicks Off Geography Trivia from Space
Keith’s note:Have you seen any of Scott Kelly’s photos (in high resolution) on the official NASA Flickr page? You won’t. He only posts low resolution versions on Twitter at @StationCDRKelly. He’s calling his own shots on all of this PR from orbit. He makes the decision – not NASA PAO – as to what taxpayers do and do not see. Too bad – some of his pictures are rather stunning. This whole special project is being set up just for him. He’s apparently only going to post one picture a week in contrast to his fellow crew members who have posted hundreds.
The rules behind this contest are hilarious – all 3,009 words. Read them here. I can only imagine what it will cost the agency to actually enforce these rules or to adjudicate complaints by participants who feel that they have been incorrectly denied a prize.
Is a contest like this a good idea? Of course it is. But if the public gets fewer pictures from space? That is a bad idea. Has NASA come up with the most complex way possible to do this? Of course it has.
3,009 words in the rules – and all we’ll get are 50 or so pictures?

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

31 responses to “3,009 Words In Scott Kelley's Trivia From Space Contest Rules”

  1. Citizen Ken says:
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    I gotta say those prizes are pretty weak. Hardly worth getting worked up about.

    Now if they were handing out space-flown artifacts, or even better some Moon rocks, then you’d see some major interest. A congratulatory tweet? Meh.

  2. AstroInMI says:
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    What does he do with the rest of the photos he takes?

  3. Ben H. says:
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    are you kidding? do you even follow him on twitter? he is constantly posting photos. they are saying only one photo a week will apply to the contest.

    • kcowing says:
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      Yawn. Of course I follow him on Twitter. That is how I know that his photos never end up on NASA.gov, NASA Flickr etc. Just low res versions on Twitter. He has also keeps NASA PAO out of the loop on many things that all over astronauts are required to work with PAO on.

      • Ben H. says:
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        your post above implies that he is only going to post one photo a week, which I think is pretty clear not what is going on.

        • kcowing says:
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          Please point to places on NASA.gov and NASA Flickr account where his previous (Twitter) photos have been posted.

          • Ben H. says:
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            Your criticism about photos on Flickr, and the length of the rules, was not what I was commenting on. you inferred from the NASA post (which doesn’t mention Flickr) that he will only post one photo a week, which there is no evidence for. he will likely continue to post frequently to twitter and one post a week will be for the contest.

            whether more photos should go to Flickr is maybe a worthwile conversation. i only follow the astros on twitter anyway.

          • kcowing says:
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            Read the rules. Flickr is mentioned. As for “likely” etc. You are just guessing.

          • Ben H. says:
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            I am inferring based on experience and how he has been interacting on twitter. you are inferring based on your negative spin that it is the other way.

            I didnt read the long rules (which are long, wow) just the main page about it, which seemed to imply twitter, not flickr. interesting.

          • kcowing says:
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            So …. you can “infer” and its OK but if I “infer” it is not OK? You have a console that needs your attention.

          • Ben H. says:
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            just trying to apply some logic. Scott Kelly has been posting lots of pictures to his Twitter. Why would he stop for this contest? Unless you are starting with an assumption that they would be doing something silly (your standard starting assumption) it makes more sense that they meant that one picture a week will be part of the #spacegeo context.

            Flickr is only mentioned in the context of posting the winners. Not that that will be where the pictures go. it’s pretty clear that it is a twitter contest.

          • kcowing says:
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            Why are none of Kelly’s high res pictures not appearing on NASA.gov or Flickr like ALL OTHER ASTRONAUTS?

          • Ben H. says:
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            That is not information I would have, nor was I trying to comment on it. I’m all for more pictures provided in more places.

            I was just trying to point out that your implication that Kelly would only post 50 pictures of Earth during his flight was at best an unfair assumption and at worst, dishonest.

          • kcowing says:
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            Now I am being “dishonest”. Yawn. Is that the best you can do? Kelly has posted nothing to NASA.gov or to NASA Flickr. The rules say that he will post one picture a week to NASA Flickr. Do the math. Read what I wrote “3,009 words in the rules – and all we’ll get are 50 or so pictures?” Clearly I am referring to the contest ergo NASA Flickr. Now please get back to whatever I am paying you to do.

          • Ben H. says:
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            The astronauts do not post directly to anywhere except Twitter. Once they take photos and uplink to the onboard laptops, there are teams on the ground who downlink photos and then do things with them (like compose timelapses for Vine or post them to other public websites). So, if some photos are not making it to a place maybe they should, it is a break (or decision by someone) in that process. I would doubt it is anything Kelly is doing himself.

          • kcowing says:
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            Ask Kelly if he changed the passwords on his social media account such that some folks at PAO who were supposed to be doing things can no longer do those things. Go ahead: ask him.

          • Ben H. says:
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            Looking at the Flickr page and the Twitter feeds of the three NASA astronauts in space, there are a lot more pictures on everyone’s Twitter – Terry, Sam, and Scott – than go up on Flickr. So it seems that whoever is choosing what to post is filtering the pictures in a way that is independent of Scott Kelly and this new photo contest.

            would be nice to see all the hi res pictures posted lots of places, including Flickr. I think you have a question worth asking there. But tying it to this contest is confusing. I don’t see any difference between the three current Tweeters.

          • fcrary says:
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            That’s an interesting comment. Are you saying NASA PIO people normally have the passwords to astronauts’ social media accounts? And use that to “do things” in their name? I can see some ethical issues with that.

          • kcowing says:
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            Sure – this happens on a routine basis. In addition to NASA staff helping out with social media and other internet postings family members and friends often help out too. When I lived at Everest Base Camp for a month my business partner had access to all of my accounts and helped out.

          • fcrary says:
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            I can see how giving away your accounts passwords could be convenient. But it isn’t something I’d do myself. There are a number of issues, ranging from basic honesty (implying you are the source of the content when you aren’t) to legal liability (if someone with your password posts actionable statements.) But what bothers me is your implication that this astronaut is expected to give away his passwords. If he wants to, that’s fine. But if he doesn’t, that’s his own business. Maybe there should be work-related and personal social.media accounts for this sort of thing.

          • kcowing says:
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            Read what I wrote. That is how it is. Guess what: working with people you trust is the best way to avoid all the scary things you seem to think are on the verge of happening at any moment.

  4. supermonkey says:
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    In your opinion, what should be the correct number of words to capture all the standard legalese for NASA to host a contest?

  5. Rich_Palermo says:
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    But the ISS is all about pathbreaking science. Really.

  6. Neal Aldin says:
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    I think the contest using one photo a week is a good idea. I agree that the verbiage of the rules is a bit much.

    What I am more concerned about is that the new NASA.com posts lots of photos of earth. They are very pretty. But none seem to have any labels telling anything about them. If they are just pretty pictures of earth for decoration then its not too valuable. If they would write a brief description of what you are looking at, then it might be more meaningful.

  7. Wendy Yang says:
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    I attempted to spread the rules. All 2968 words (according to LibreOffice) of it. The final recording time turns out to be somewhere around 11 minutes. It is darn too long. Full of needless redundancy, misplaced definitions, and what’s up with the weird numbering?

  8. Michael Spencer says:
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    It’s worth pointing out that higher rez pix would allow closer zooming which could make defining the location much easier.

  9. AstroInMI says:
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    I get this feeling that all these photos that aren’t being released are going to end up in a book called “My Year* in Space” a year from now. (*well, 342 days anyway).

  10. Patrick says:
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    The rules are both burdensome and unenforceable, which belies Kelly’s poli-persuasion. My sibling is a talented trial lawyer. I’ll suggest she bone up on Contest Law for this new niche market: Clearly, there’ll be a long line of sobbing ‘Tweens wondering why they’ve been denied a prize!