Geography buffs can now test their mettle from space with the help of NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and maybe win a signed photo, to boot.
Kelly, along with Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, is living and working aboard the .
Here is a photo of the two of them looking VERY serious. Because space missions are serious stuff.
Space missions are serious, you guys. VERY serious. (Photo: NASA)
In recent years, astronauts have learned how cool it is to interact with other humans on Earth via the power of social media. Kelly is taking that to the next level with the launch of , via his Twitter account: and giving away signed photos from space.
Here’s his first entry, from April 22. Do you know the answer?
! In 1962, former Astronaut John Glenn’s Friendship 7 Mercury landed in this vicinity. Name it!
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly)
If you want to play the next round of “?” here are the rules, via NASA:
- Users follow on Twitter, who will tweet a photo from space every Wednesday during his one-year mission.
- The first person to @reply to @StationCDRKelly with the correct answer wins.
- Use the hashtag #spacegeo after your reply and to follow the geography game on Twitter from space.
- Players are competing to be the first to name that location of Earth from space to win a printed photo of the image taken from space and autographed by Kelly after his return to Earth in March 2016.
- The winning photos will be posted to nasa.gov along with the winner’s name. Participants will be limited to receiving one prize during the duration of the contest.
Complete contest rules are , if reading legalese is your thing.
The one-year mission is twice the typical mission duration. Kelly and Kornienko are donating their living bodies to science, so to speak, by allowing researchers the opportunity to study the affects that space has on humans, both medically and psychologically. Kelly is also part of NASA’s “twin study,” which will compare his results against his twin brother, astronaut Mark Kelly, to “provide broader insight into the subtle effects and changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year,” per NASA.
You can follow the on Twitter via the #YearInSpace hashtag. NASA also has plenty of resources to , or to track when y.
Starry sky snapped from the International Space Station on Sept. 13, 2014. (Photo: NASA)
