Goodnight Phoenix!

Saturday was our last attempt to contact Phoenix.  We last heard from our lander on November 2nd.  A massive dust storm and thick cloud cover drained our batteries and made it impossible to continue to operate the Mars lander.  This was expected but we were hoping to exceed expectations by another 30 days or so.  Anyway, we returned lots of good science and look forward to seeing what the science teams learn from those data in the coming months.

Joe Stehly's Week 13 2008 NFL Expert Picks

Last Week: 11-5
Season: 50-24 [68%]

Tennessee at Detroit
PICK: TENNESSEE

Seattle at Dallas
PICK: DALLAS

Arizona at Philadelphia
PICK: ARIZONA

San Francisco at Buffalo
PICK: BUFFALO

Baltimore at Cincinnatti
PICK: BALTIMORE

Carolina at Green Bay
PICK: GREEN BAY

Miami at St. Louis
PICK: MIAMI

Indy at Cleveland
PICK: INDY

New Orleans at Tampa Bay
PICK: TAMPA BAY

New York Giants at Washington
PICK: NEW YORK

Atlanta at San Diego
PICK: SAN DIEGO

Denver at New York Jets
PICK: NEW YORK JETS

Kansas City at Oakland
PICK: OAKLAND

Pittsburgh at New England
PICK: NEW ENGLAND

Chicago at Minnesota
PICK: CHICAGO

Jacksonville at Houston
PICK: JACKSONVILLE

Joe Stehly's NFL 2008 Week 12 Picks

Last Week: 10-6

Season: 39-19 [67.2%]

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh

PICK: Pittsburgh

Philadelphia at Baltimore

PICK: Baltimore

Houston at Cleveland

PICK: Cleveland

San Francisco at Dallas

PICK: Dallas

Tampa Bay at Detroit

PICK: Tampa Bay

Minnesota at Jacksonville

PICK: Minnesota

Buffalo at Kansas City

UPSET PICK: Kansas City

New England at Miami

PICK: New England

Chicago at St. Louis

PICK: Chicago

New York Jets at Tennessee

PICK: Tennessee

Oakland at Denver

PICK: Denver

Carolina at Atlanta

PICK: Carolina

New York Giants at Arizona

PICK: New York Giants

Washington at Seattle

PICK: Washington

Indy at San Diego

PICK: Indy

Green Bay at New Orleans

PICK: New Orleans

Top Ten List #1 - Nintendo Games

Top Ten Nintendo Entertainment System [8 bit] Games of All Time

[in Joe's opinion]

10. Jackal

9.  Contra

8. Tecmo Super Bowl

7. Super Mario Brothers 2

6.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

5.  Super Mario Brothers

4.  Dragon Warrior

3.  The Legend of Zelda

2.  Dragon Warrior 3

1.  Mike Tyson's Punch-out!!!

Now I realize that Super Mario Brothers 3 is considered the best game by most people.  I liked the game and recongnize is greatness, but I never was addicted to it.  Also, the MegaMan games were great, but I never quite got all that into them.

A Day in the Life - On Mars

I read the news today - oh boy - and NASA has officially announced that the Mars Phoenix Lander has completed its mission operations.

I thought it would be fun to summarize what a day in the life of an engineer working on the lander looked like.  Many friends and family have asked this question so here is my attempt at answering it-

Phoenix is a tactical and strategic mission.  We start everyday with a baseline science plan.  This is the strategic portion.  For example, we want to trench with the robotic arm, take x number of images of the trench location before the dig and x number of images after the dig, take pressure and temperature readings, etc....  All of this is known as "the plan."  Many more details are included in the plan, but they aren't the most exciting.

The tactical portion is where is gets fun.  We must react what happened the day before and make sure that everything from the strategic plan is still valid and worth commanding.

Now you need to know how all of this fits together.  To do this, we need to understand how Phoenix operates.  Details will be vague here to comply with international trade and arms regulations.  The lander wakes up in the morning and sleeps in the evening.  In the morning, it receives its commands so that it knows what to do during the day.  Then during the morning and into the afternoon, it carries out those science activities as defined in the commands that it was sent.  Finally, in the evening it sends its data back to earth.

In order for this to happen, the engineers and scientists must work during the middle of the Martian night.  The shift starts as Phoenix is sending its data home.  Then, we look at that data and the strategic "plan" to come up with a finalized plan for the next day's operations.  This plan is a hybrid of the initial science objectives for the day and also based on the state of the lander from the recently received data.  We work all [Mars] night and uplink the plan in command form early the next Martian morning.  Then we go home and sleep during the Martian day and do the whole thing over again once the shift starts back up again.

So it really is a simple model.  Now throw in the wrench that a Martian day [or sol, as we call it] is 24 hrs 39.5 minutes long.  This means that if we start our shift at 9 am on Monday, our shift starts at 9:40 am on Tuesday and 10:20 am on Wendesday, etc, etc, etc.  Our start time is the same with respect to the Mars clock, but different from the Earth's point of view by 40 minutes each day - this is known as "Mars time" in our Phoenix [and MER and MSL] worldview.

So that is basically the model we followed all summer long.  When you throw in all the surprises that Mars holds - both good and bad - it turns into a very unique experience.

Joe Stehly's NFL 2008 Week 11 Picks

Last Week: 12-2

Season: 29-13

New York Jets @ New England

PICK: New England

Denver @ Atlanta

PICK: Atlanta

Detroit @ Carolina

PICK: Carolina

Philadelphia @ Cincinnati

PICK: Philadelphia

New Orleans @ Kansas City

PICK: New Orleans

Baltimore @ New York Giants

PICK: New York

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay

PICK: Tampa Bay

Oakland @ Miami

PICK: Miami

Chicago@ Green Bay

PICK: Chicago

Houston @ Indy

PICK: Indy

St. Louis @ San Francisco

PICK: San Francisco

Arizona @ Seattle

PICK: Arizona

Tennessee @ Jacksonville

Upset PICK: Jacksonville

San Diego @ Pittsburgh

PICK: Pittsburgh

Dallas @ Washington

PICK: Washington

Cleveland @ Buffalo

PICK: Cleveland

Joe Stehly's NFL 2008 Week 10 Expert Picks

Last Week: 10-4

Season: 17-11

Denver at Cleveland

PICK: Denver

New Orleans at Atlanta

PICK: New Orleans

Tennessee at Chicago

UPSET PICK: Chicago

Jacksonville at Detroit

PICK: Jacksonville

Seattle at Miami

PICK: Miami

Green Bay at Minnesota

PICK: Minnesota

Buffalo at New England

PICK: New England

St. Louis at NY Jets

PICK: NY Jets

Baltimore at Houston

PICK: Baltimore

Carolina at Oakland

PICK: Carolina

Indianapolis at Pittsburgh

PICK: Indy

Kansas City at San Diego

PICK: San Diego

NY Giants at Philadelphia

PICK: NY Giants

San Francisco at Arizona

PICK: Arizona

Joe Stehly's NFL 2008 Week 9 Expert Picks

Last Week: 7-7
Season: 7-7

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills

The Jets nearly lost to the Chiefs at home last week.  The Bills were upset by the Dolphins.  Look for Buffalo to rebound against an overachieving Jets team.

PICK: Bills

Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears

The Bears aren't great but the Lions will need to wait at least one more week for their first win of the season

PICK: Bears

Jacksonville Jaguars at Cincinnati Bengals

See above....Jags over the Bengals

PICK: Jags

Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns

This was my toughest pick of the week.  I think the Browns are about to turn it around so look for them to pull one out against the Ravens.

PICK: Browns

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs

No comment

PICK: Bucs

Houston Texans at Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings absolutely need this game if they have any chance of making the playoffs.  A preseason Superbowl pick, the Vikings have not lived up to expectations.

PICK: Vikings

Arizona Cardinals at St. Louis Rams

The Rams went into New England and nearly won despite several no calls by the officials going in the Pats favor.  Sadly, if the Rams beat the Cardinals they will have playoff hopes in footballs weakest division.

UPSET PICK: Rams

Green Bay Packers at Tennessee Titans

Boring game, will be won by the Titans.

PICK: Titans

Miami Dolphins at Denver Broncos

PICK: Dolphins

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

PICK: Giants

Atlanda Falcons at Oakland Raiders

PICK: Falcons

Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks

PICK: Eagles

New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts

PICK: Colts

Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins

PICK: Steelers

Joe Stehly's NFL 2008 Week 8 Expert Picks

Oakland at Baltimore

My pick for the most boring game of the week.  The Ravens should have an easy time with this game.  Russell vs Flacco could be interesting.....

PICK: Baltimore

Arizona at Carolina

This will be a fun one.  Arizona is turning into a very entertaining offensive team - lots of points and lots of turnovers.  Carolina by 10

PICK: Carolina

Tampa Bay at Dallas

Dallas is becoming dysfunctional and Tampa Bay is too good of a team for the Cowboys to easily bounce back after being embarrassed by the Rams last week.

PICK: Tampa Bay

Washington at Detroit

Washington in a blowout

PICK: Washington

Buffalo at Miami

Buffalo, but it will be a close one - a good candidate for upset of the week

PICK: Buffalo

St. Louis at New England

My upset pick of the week.  The Rams are hot and I don't like the Patriots or any team associated with Boston - because of that, Rams 27 Pats 24 with a Dante Hall kick return

UPSET PICK: St. Louis

San Diego at New Orleans [in London]

Two teams playing well below expectations [see Browns/Jags as well].  This one will be from England so it should be fun.  The Saints are without their two starting RBs if Deuce does, in fact, get suspended for substance abuse so my pick is the Chargers

PICK: San Diego

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS at New York Jets

The Chiefs are starting their 3rd string quarterback and Larry Johnson is once again benched because he acts like a child.  The defense was absolutely run over last week.  This could be another blowout.  I may not watch because I'm tired of Favre.....

PICK: New York

Atlanta at Philadelphia

This one could be a close game but the Eagles need it more and are playing at home.  The Eagles by a touchdown

PICK: Philadelphia

Cleveland at Jacksonville

Two more underachieving teams.  Early in the season this was to have been a marquee matchup of two teams looking to upset long running division champions.......not so much.   Jacksonville should win this one.

PICK: Jacksonville

Cincinnati at Houston

The Bengals are just bad.  Their defense was never very strong and now that Palmer has been hurting, they are in trouble.  Until Palmer recovers, they will not win a game

PICK: Houston

New York Giants at Pittsburgh

Early in the year I thought New York was no better than a 9-7 team.  Look for them to struggle down the stretch.

PICK: Pittsburgh

Seattle at San Francisco

San Francisco will play off the momentum generated by firing head coach Mike Nolan.

PICK: San Francisco

Indianapolis at Tennessee

The Colts will officially pass the torch to the Titans.  Where has Marvin Harrison gone?

PICK: Tennessee