NASA EDGE Presents 2009 Mission MadnessMarch 13, 2009--What fun is March Madness if you can only play basketball on Earth? Travel into space and beyond with NASA EDGE’s Mission Madness to vote for your favorite NASA mission. 
Participants will be able to vote for their favorite missions as many times as they like while polls are open, with the very first Mission Madness Championship Winner determined on April 8th, 2009. Voting for the first round features 32 predetermined mission matchups. Each round consists of two days of online voting with the winning missions advancing in head to head competition. How to PlayPrint out your Mission Madness bracket here and make your predictions as you learn about the missions. You can print out as many brackets as you like to evaluate endless winning scenarios.Second, return to the website and vote for your favorite missions during each round. You are allowed to vote for your favorite missions as many times as you like, so be sure to support your favorite missions to help them advance deep into the tournament. As voting is completed for each round, the winning missions advance allowing you to see how your predictions compare to all of the voters. Key Dates:March 9-18: Brackets available on the web site with the head to head line-ups for each region.March 19-20: Round 1 Voting March 23-24: Round 2 Voting March 26-27: Sweet Sixteen Voting March 30-31: Quarter Final Round Voting April 2-3: Semi Final Round Voting April 5-6: Final Round Voting April 7: NASA EDGE names 2009 Mission Madness Winning Mission Mission Madness Selection ShowAfter applying a series of both computer formulas and human metrics to the vast body of NASA Missions, NASA EDGE hosts Chris, Blair and Franklin will reveal the opening round lineup of 64 competing missions for the 2009 Mission Madness Tournament. Sixteen individual missions competing in each of the four divisions (Nebula, Stellar, Galaxy and Horizon) provide key matchups between missions past, present and future.NASA EDGE is joined by three prominent Mission Madness Analysts. Miles O’Brien (former CNN Reporter), Melvin Ferebee (NASA Langley) and Keith Cowing (NASA WATCH) will give their unique take on the how early rounds will shake out and which missions will remain competitive deep into the tournament. Further analysis is provided by NASA EDGE Facebook friends. The true final four will not be revealed until April 4th, but Chris, Blair and Franklin share their predictions for which missions they think will compete to be the 2009 Mission Madness Champion. Until April 8th, it's up to you! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite: NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission!  |
THE MISSIONThe University of Arizona is honored to be the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled to land May 25, 2008, is the first in NASA's "Scout Program." Scouts are designed to be highly innovative and relatively low-cost complements to major missions being planned as part of the agency's Mars Exploration Program. Learn More |
The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of CO-Is, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems. International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Additional information on Phoenix is online at here and here. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information on NASA's Mars program is online at here.
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