NASA Mohawk Guy: The Badass Haircut Of The Mars Landing

As I write this the Mars Curiosity rover is approaching the Martian atmosphere. I'm watching the live stream (via my Xbox - how great is modern technology?), and something kept catching my eyes in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory control room: a mohawk.

It's a red and black mohawk, with yellow stars dyed in the stubbly sides of the guy's head. Forget the thick black framed glasses, polyester ties and pocket protectors of the control room staff at the Apollo landings - this is the face of 21st century NASA!

The guy beneath the mohawk is Bobak Ferdowsi, Activity lead for the mission. He has different hairdos for each mission, and this one was voted on by the rest of the team. It's a star-spangled look - he's supposed to have some blue amidst the red. 

You can follow Bobak on Twitter - he's @tweetsoutloud. It's exciting following along with the thoughts of the men and women working to bring the human spirit to the red planet. 

Good luck, Curiosity. We're all rooting for you.

UPDATE: We made it!

The Curiosity has landed safely on Mars and, within moments of landing, already starting sending pictures back. What an exciting and moving thing to experience live with the heroes at NASA. We've had a bad couple of weeks on Earth - the climate is severly acting up in response to pollution, we've had two gun massacres in the US, bigots stood in line for hours to eat fried chicken in celebration of hate - but a dedicated group of men and women, of humans, worked together to achieve this feat not for profit but for knowledge. Not for personal gain but for the advancement of the race.

It's fitting that this happened during the Olympics. There's something outdated about people being defined by national boundaries competing. The future of the world lies in cooperation. The future of our species depends on it.