NASA will literally figuratively put you into space

NASA is offering the public the ability to have their picture carried on an upcoming space shuttle mission. But it’s somewhat vague about exactly what this entails.

The agency says that visitors to a new Face in Space website “can upload their portrait to fly with the astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery’s STS-133 mission and/or shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 mission” but doesn’t say any more about the practicalities on board the mission. That means the scheme could be anything from the shuttles beaming out the images to amuse extra-terrestrial lifeforms, to an astronaut tossing a USB stick in the back of a drawer.

For those who were thinking of trying to be clever, NASA specifies that users must not submit “materials describing or depicting sexually explicit conduct”, though it’s not said if and how this will be checked.

By submitting a photo, users grant NASA a ” perpetual, irrevocable, universe-wide” license to use the data. That must be the first time such a term has been more than overcautious lawyer hype.

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