Month: March 2009

I want to correct myself in an earlier post about multiple/single voting.  After reading the initial post again, I realized I threw my great co-workers at NASA HQ under the bus unintentionally.  It was not my intent to put “blame” on NASA HQ for not putting controls in place to prevent multiple voting.  The privacy policy is a Federal Government policy from OMB and applies to any .gov site.  So in essence it’s out of everyone’s hands.   I want to thank them for clarifying the regulations (thanks Jim, you’re the man!).  

Where have you gone, Neil Armstrong?!!!!!!!!

Yes, Freedom 7 is still alive.  But history took a hit in the late hours last night as LRO blasted past Apollo 11 at 10 minutes to midnight.  LRO, the satellite that will eventually launch and study the Moon, beat the monumental, historic, manned mission to the Moon.  LRO will not deliver America’s most profound quote regarding accomplishment.  It will, however, bring boatloads of scientific data, images, and possibly a tournament trophy.

Check out the match ups and then get ready to vote.

The Co-Host

I want to address the notion of multiple voting versus single voting.  Many of you are upset that users are allowed to vote multiple times.  As you know, one of the negatives to multiple voting is that an aggressive group can skew the results.  Unfortunately, NASA HQ is not able to put controls in place that would only allow each computer to register one vote as it would violate NASA’s privacy policy.  This is out of our (NASA EDGE) hands.  For some the controversy makes the contest rather interesting and for others a sour taste in his/her mouth.  From our standpoint, we felt that we at least needed to be upfront about the rules of the contest.  We had planned to explain the rational after the contest was finished, but after several folks expressed their concern, we thought we should clear the air.

Round 3 Begins at 9:00am 3-26-09 EST
Votes cast prior to start will be cleared just before 9:00am

The Co-Host

At the buzzer!!!!!!!!

For the moment, forget SPB, forget the Hubble breakdown, forget it all.  A couple of match ups came down to a few last minute votes.

IF the results hold (and they should,) Voyager 1 & 2 beat Cassini by 29 votes and Expedition 1 beat MRO by 84 votes.  Throughout the day, these missions swapped leads and battled for advantage.  You can whine about SPB and multiple voting all you want, but there was drama at 11:59pm, and it was AWESOME! 

The Co-Host

Round 1 Delivers a shocking upset and plenty of drama!

As one of our guests said on the vodcast… “Rovers can’t throw touchdowns.”

The Co-Host

Voting has begun!

The story lines for the tournament are starting to take shape, and there are some early surprises.  If you have any reactions, thoughts, issues or taunts, start posting. 

Looks like the Mars Rovers need to send back images of some more votes!

Until now, 2009 Mission Madness has had only minor, anticipated controversy.  An agency with hundreds of valuable missions will certainly go through some expected growing pains as they narrow the field of competing missions. 

Tonight, however, features a new controversial second front.  Mr. Gerstenmaier is appearing tonight on the excessively popular and influential news show, The Colbert Report.  Even if Mr. Gerstenmaier doesn’t mention any of Space Operations’ 16 participating missions, will his appearance have an unfair influence on 2009 Mission Madness voting?

As self appointed Commissioner of Astronautics, medianaut, and 2009 Mission Madness watchdog, I may have to look into this matter further.

What do you, the real voters, have to say?

Ever watchful,

The Co-Host

Ok, we are literally hours away from announcing the field of 64 Missions competing in 2009 Mission Madness. 

And this year’s field of missions will no doubt spark some controversy.  Some will be angry about their favorite mission not being among the top 64.  Some will be angry that their mission is going up against Apollo 11.  Some will demand that all missions be judged on the amount of science they have generated.  Some will demand that the greatest mission should simply be the coolest mission imaginable.  Tensions may run high, tempers may flare. 

So, I would like to suggest the following guidelines to ensure a successful outcome:

1.    Print and fill out 64 brackets to account for all winning scenarios.
 
2.     Fill out your bracket in pencil in order to make adjustments less obvious.

3.    Create decoy brackets for your friends that disagree with you.  When they leave their desk to go to a meeting, switch their bracket with your better bracket.  If you do this enough, you may actually influence their votes.

4.     (For those folks whose favorite mission was overlooked) Find out who is actually on the selection committee, befriend them, use your skills of persuasion to influence them in the selection process for next year.

5.     Vote like mad.  Voting doesn’t begin until the 19th, but you are allowed to vote as many times as you like.  So, print your bracket next week, and then when voting begins, vote away.  NOTE: By following guideline number 3, you can possibly reduce your need to vote incessantly by half.

This list is not complete, but it should offer some initial strategy to select the winner for 2009 Mission Madness.

Of course, you could just download the NASA EDGE 2009 Mission Madness Selection Show on Monday and vote for the missions that the Co-Host is supporting.  Just a thought.

The Co-Host

“40 years later, and the Apollo astronauts still have a better 40 yard dash time than any rover.”

“Apollo 11 was great, but where is the science.”

“You might want to keep an eye on Expedition 16.  They have quite a following.”

“Lunar Prospector 1 was the original LCROSS”

“Orion?!?  That’s like nominating a film in pre-production for Best Picture.”

Get used to it, folks.  This is what you will be hearing over the next three weeks as people begin to sort through and size up the matchups for the 2009 Mission Madness Tournament.  And this is where you want to come to make your case for your favorite mission (ER2 is the real front runner) or trash missions that face some pretty tough odds*.  Of course, there are also plenty of missions that didn’t make the field of 64.  We really want to hear from you.  Remember, all information exchanged during this year’s competition will be evaluated by the Selection Committee for next year’s competition.  So don’t be afraid to let your opinions be known.

Good luck, and may the best mission win!

The Co-Host

P.S.  I know I don’t need to say it, but please refrain from using profanity, foul language or any other abusive language.  Not only is it not going to be posted… it will count against your mission.

*2009 Mission Madness does not support gambling of any kind.  The use of the term odds here is merely coincidental.