Pick a perfect March Madness bracket and SpaceX will award you a trip to Mars
College basketball fans now have a second motivation for predicting perfectly the team results during the March NCAA championship finals: SpaceX will award a perfect bracket a trip to Mars.
In a post from X’s business account, the platform officially announced their bracket challenge, partnered with their sponsor Uber Eats, announcing that anyone with a perfect bracket would win a trip to Mars as a part of the SpaceX program.
Those who are at least 18 years old and submit their bracket on X between March 16, after the CBS Selection Show, and the first game of the Round of 64 on March 20 will be eligible for the prize.
For those who don’t wish to travel to Mars, anyone who fills out a perfect bracket in the challenge could alternatively accept a prize of $250,000 and additional perks involved with the SpaceX program. This includes 1 year of free residential Starlink service, the chance to train like a SpaceX astronaut for a day, an opportunity to send a personal item of choice to space on a Falcon 9 launch, VIP viewing of a Starship launch.
If no one picks a perfect bracket (which is normally the case) a $100,000 prize was be awarded to the best non-perfect bracket.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
College basketball fans now have a second motivation for predicting perfectly the team results during the March NCAA championship finals: SpaceX will award a perfect bracket a trip to Mars.
In a post from X’s business account, the platform officially announced their bracket challenge, partnered with their sponsor Uber Eats, announcing that anyone with a perfect bracket would win a trip to Mars as a part of the SpaceX program.
Those who are at least 18 years old and submit their bracket on X between March 16, after the CBS Selection Show, and the first game of the Round of 64 on March 20 will be eligible for the prize.
For those who don’t wish to travel to Mars, anyone who fills out a perfect bracket in the challenge could alternatively accept a prize of $250,000 and additional perks involved with the SpaceX program. This includes 1 year of free residential Starlink service, the chance to train like a SpaceX astronaut for a day, an opportunity to send a personal item of choice to space on a Falcon 9 launch, VIP viewing of a Starship launch.
If no one picks a perfect bracket (which is normally the case) a $100,000 prize was be awarded to the best non-perfect bracket.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“If no one picks a perfect bracket (which is normally the case) . . .”
There was a story in Analog (and I do not remember the issue; it was many years ago), that used the ”perfect pick’ as a plot device. The conceit being that it is impossible to pick a perfect bracket, and to do so, you must be a time-traveler.. A murder-committing time traveler, in this scenario. No one has, to date, picked a perfect bracket.
The perfect bracket . . . is no bracket at all!
For many, “March Madness” NCAA basketball, is just annoying noise.
Um…the kinds of people who get caught up in these sportsball brackets are the kinds of folk that don’t care about space.
So help me–there are times I wish COVID had ended sports–
How many nerds were forced to do the jock’s homework?
errr….
Jeff Wright posited:
“Um…the kinds of people who get caught up in these sportsball brackets are the kinds of folk that don’t care about space.
My Brother, I am here.
Comments match my preferences. I don’t do spectator sports and haven’t had a television in over 15 years. I’d rather play any of the games with the grandkids that watch some overpaid juveniles play that same game.
I am not embarrassed to say it. I watch some sports.
Not the big round ball. It just doesn’t appeal to me. But yes I could guess the bracket because in the end its all just a guess.
I go to baseball games, Football games, I used to play the infrequent pick-up game, until we just got to old to compete with the 20 year olds. I normally just bowled with the family in a league.
Now I just have to decide on if I want to bet by total guess or play the odds.
Come on everyone we can try just for fun. It doesn’t cost anything.
Makes me wonder if (or when) someone will use an AI program to make the perfect pick.
How about 2 weeks in Philly instead?
“TO” Mars.
What about back safely to “TO” the earth?
I would look very carefully at the fine print on “Winning” this competition.
That sounds like an insane challenge—statistically, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are about 1 in 9.2 quintillion! But if someone actually pulls it off, a trip to Mars (or even the $250K alternative) would be an unbelievable reward.
It’s also a genius marketing move by SpaceX and Uber Eats, blending sports hype with space exploration. Even if no one wins the grand prize, the contest itself generates massive engagement.
Would you take the trip to Mars if you won, or go for the cash and perks? 🚀🏀
https://www.leadingzone.ae/
I thoroughly enjoy football… ( You guys for some unknown reason mistake football for a game with an egg shaped object which rarely touches a foot… “Scratches head” ) , and I regularly have a bet on my home team. Generally losing.
I’m also a big fan of all things space. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
@john hare,
Well done sir! The only time I have turned on my television in well over a decade is to play Wii with my kids and their friends. I miss it not one jot. I watch matches from my local football team on my tablet, and watch the occasion movie when traveling… But that’s it.
( I do however enjoy the incredulity in the voices of sellers of cable packages when I tell them I don’t watch TV!)
Uber eats and doordashers
I hate this gig economy—those pests act like truck lanes are their private parking lots—and that security, maintenance, etc are their waiters.
Elon Musk
The Verdict with Ted Cruze (3-17-25)
https://youtu.be/BDREZmpkIz8
31:50
Wherein Elon answers the age-old question, Star Wars or Star Trek.
Lee S, as a lifelong American, I am forced to agree with you that American “football” is grossly misnamed. However, fixing it ranks below many other naming issues. For example, we need an American word for “buffet”/”smorgasbord”. Thankfully, French Fries and the Gulf of Mexico have been dealt with. Is Freedom Toast a thing or do we still need to deal with French Toast, too?
@Mark Sizer
Smogasbord is Scandinavian word which literally translates as “sandwich table” … Which makes nothing but sense, although I don’t see “sandwich table” catching on anytime soon!
The whole “gulf of Mexico” thing is up for debate… I’m not sure anyone can just decide to rename a major geologic feature and make it so just because they have a beef with the country it’s named after… And as for french toast… Have you ever tried it? As an Englishman I have no great love of the French, but french toast is theirs and they are welcome to keep it!