Earth vs. Space Game Resumes
By Hal Bogner, Match Director   
January 14, 2009
Patrick_advocates_f6_300.jpgIt's been two months since the adjournment of our Earth vs. Space game, and a lot has happened during that time.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour has returned astronaut Greg Chamitoff to Earth, where he has been reunited with his wife and children, and has now reacclimated to what spacemen call "one gee" - the full gravity of our planet.

Greg will now continue to play from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he will spend the next several months doing an extensive post-mortem on his six months of work aboard the International Space Station.  He will also continue to rebuild his muscles and even his bones - all of which lose mass during extended periods of weightlessness ("microgravity", in space parlance), despite several hours a day in the gym aboard ISS.

Greg has recorded a video to present his 15th move , as he greets his opponents again (click here to see it - note: you will need version 9 or higher of Windows Media Player).  The video is also linked from right column of the Space Station's "mission" page, at:

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The young champions at Stevenson Elementary School (Bellevue, Washington) are excited at the possibility of meeting Greg this spring, and got right to work when informed of the new move a few days ago.  Patrick Wang - not yet back for the resumption of school, thanks to a family trip to China - can be seen above with his magnetic set, standing by the Great Wall - and lobbying for his first choice (15...f7-f6) in the voting that starts again now.

The students have provided Earth's voters with only two choices this turn, and we are holding voting open through Monday, January 19 (which is the holiday in honor of  Martin Luther King Jr. in the US) at 5 PM EST (2 PM PST, 10 PM ECT).

greg_move15_300.jpg
Greg Chamitoff vs. Earth (after 15. Rfe1)

The two choices offered by the Stevenson Team are 15...f7-f6, and 15...e7-e6.

Please join us and vote!  And good luck to all combatants in this game that began in outer space, as 2009 gets underway!

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