New twist in space game

Mike Maddox — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 03:32:25 GMT

"The offered prizes now include a zero-gravity airplane ride as well as flights on next-generation suborbital, orbital and round-the-moon spacecraft that have not yet been built."

What, no excursions to Olympus Mons?

New twist in space game

Sam Dinkin — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 07:31:02 GMT

Alan: Thanks for pointing out the T&C item. We'll make the friendly game with Willard Scott a completely independent competition run using pencils and paper. It will be a skill challenge where we both post prizes. We'll write our own terms and conditions for that.

Are professional tennis players gamblers? Professional golf players? Are you a gambler if you enter a journalism competition and win a prize? How is your job so different than Willard Scott's in this respect?

As for the prizes for the Space Shot game, your employer's also chosen Rocketplane-Kistler for their skill challenge prize. As you have reported, RpK has won a $207 million award to develop their orbital vehicle. If they fail, perhaps SpaceX or Lockheed Martin will do business with us.

We are setting aside enough prize money for the orbital prize to take a Russian Soyuz if necessary. I suppose you would have a ready quip about how Ukraine and Belarus got their fuel lines cut off if we had chosen Soyuz instead.

For around-the-Moon flight, the Soyuz was developed for Lunar travel so in a sense, Lunar ExpressSM has been in development for the last 40 years and had half the resources of the Cold War behind it.

New twist in space game

anonymous — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:53:07 GMT

I refuse to give Sam Dinkin any more money for his contests. On his chat pages, he shows the unmistakable attitudes of (1) someone who always has to have the last say, and (2) someone who is always right despite logic and research. He refuses to acknowledge that improvements in his product are possible, and he regularly insults professional and trained meteorologists. And, comparing my education, professionalism, and skill to "weather model" Willard Scott (who is NOT a meteorologist), is just plain stupid.

New twist in space game

Alan Boyle — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:20:20 GMT

In his follow-up message, Sam refers to a contest that's being run by Microsoft, which is a partner along with NBC-Universal in the MSNBC.com joint venture. Here's a link for more information:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16549073/

I had little idea weather prediction would turn out to be such a controversial topic. ;-) But maybe I should have, considering that here in Seattle, the populace has been laid low by all this wintry, windy weather.

And in response to Anonymous ... now that the game is free, I guess there's no longer a need to give Sam any more money for his contests.

New twist in space game

Sam Dinkin — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:33:03 GMT

Of course, I want the last word here. We are changing our product daily based on user feedback. Anonymous (Ryan Gee? Alan Sheets?), you can help judge which to pursue if you want to co-invest with me. Willard Scott is backed by the best predictive tools that his meteorology team can assemble. Hard to understand how the wisdom of crowds can beat the experts, but they do.

New twist in space game

Tony Webb — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:46:50 GMT

HONESTLY FOLKS… Sam is doing his best to help people get to space. We at eSpaceTickets.com are doing our absolute best for students and teachers to experience SPACE in celebration of World Space Week 2007.

Rest assured everybody has a chance and our eSpaceTickets.com odds are 350 to ONE. I said, 350 to ONE student and ONE teacher to experience SPACE by a journey to the Edge of Space in a MiG-31 Foxhound and Zero-Gravity flights. Our flights are guaranteed by Space-Travellers.com and there will be a winner declared. We sincerely hope more that ONE student and ONE teacher will make the journey but WE have stepped up to the “launch pad” with our international project… SO PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT SO MORE THAN MORE ONE WILL WIN!

Journey to eSpaceTickets.com and show your support BUT what Sam Dinkin is trying deserves appreciation and support.

BTW: I began my efforts in the year 2000 and by far there is no person on planet Earth that has done more to help others to win space tourism prizes. I am not tooting my horn — just stating the facts. Granted innovative eSpaceTickets solutions were tested BUT THIS solution has been refined over the past seven years!

Folks… PLEASE show your support for the eSpaceTickets.com World Space Week 2007 celebration of 50 years in space!!!

Thank You.

Tony Webb
Founder
http://www.eSpaceTickets.com

New twist in space game

Josh — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:24:00 GMT

Great post and discussion. I myself have mixed feelings

New twist in space game

komedi — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:44:26 GMT