Bobak Ferdowsi: Meet The NASA Curiosity Mission's 'Mohawk Guy'
As live shots of Mars rover Curiosity's Pasadena-area control room went viral, America was in awe ... over one guy's mohawk or, maybe, fauxhawk, depending on your point of view.
@tweetsoutloud Bobak.
Yes, as NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated the unprecedented move of setting a car-sized rover on the red planet with more technology than has ever been in space, jaws dropped over this guy.
His name is Bobak Ferdowsi, and ...
... he identifies himself as flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission. He's an MIT grad, apparently.
Gone are the days of middle-aged men with pocket protectors and huge headsets, a la '60s-era Apollo missions.
This ain't Houston.
No, the L.A.-area control room for this mission looked a little like the pitch room for TMZ last night -- young and snarky.
Here are some tweets about our friend Bobak:
i don't know much about science but I'm pretty sure we couldn't have done it without Mohawk Guy
— Danny Baranowsky (@dannyBstyle) August 6, 2012@tweetsoutloud
Correction:
— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) August 6, 2012@tweetsoutloud has the best (male) hair at@nasajpl.
The Atlantic noted that Ferdowsi has set off a torrent of internet memes (see above).
He reportedly goes with a new "do" for every mission. Obviously, this one was special. Ferdowsi tweeted this last night:
Internet, you win this round. I'll be back later, but thanks so much. Now going to celebrate with all my friends and team!
— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) August 6, 2012#msl
One fan even set up a Tumblr blog titled "NASA Needs More Mohawks," calling Ferdowsi the "coolest guy at NASA."
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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