Curiosity: Meet ‘Mohawk Guy,’ Mars mission’s Internet sensation
As the rover called Curiosity made its hair-raising, breathtaking descent into the Martian atmosphere Sunday night, the viewers watchingNASA’slive feed at home seemed to have just one question: Who’s that guy with the mohawk?
Flight director Bobak Ferdowsi’s eyes were trained on his monitor in the front row of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory control room as the Mars Science Laboratory made it through its final “seven minutes of terror” and touched down on the Red Planet. But many viewers’ eyes were fixed on Ferdowsi -- turning the Bay Area native into an online sensation in the ensuing hours and days, drawing some 43,000 Twitter followers and inspiring Internet memes.
• Video: Meet ‘Mohawk guy’ Bobak Ferdowsi
Wearing a blue-and-red plaid shirt that perfectly complemented his hairstyle -- red and blue streaks in his Mohawk, with white stars bleached into the side -- Ferdowsi, 32, chatted Wednesday about his newfound fame, his style and his experiences on this ambitious NASA mission.
What’s your job on this NASA mission?
I’m one of a team of flight directors. I’ve been trying to draw this analogy of the “Apollo 13” Ed Harris role [who played flight director Gene Krantz]. What it really involves is taking a holistic view of the spacecraft operations and making sure that while we’re operating, we’re not doing anything to put the spacecraft at risk.
Not only is this our baby, because we worked so hard, but now it’s a national asset on Mars. We are responsible to everybody to make sure that we do our best to keep it safe and running for everybody.
Did you expect all this attention the night of the landing?
Not in the least. I thought there might be a funny comment or two somewhere, or a friend who says, “Oh I saw you on TV.” I’ve actually [already] been doing different hairstyles for different events in the mission.
-- Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
Follow Amina on Google+ and on Twitter @aminawrite.