Mars landing makes star of rocket scientist

NASA has landed a rover on Mars, and we have a man with a mohawk to thank for the ingenuity.

The Curiosity rover  touched down on Mars during the weekend after an eight-month flight in space. NASA’s flight director Bobak Ferdowsi helped guide the small car-sized device from space to the surface of the red planet. Ferdowsi is an engineering genius. He also has a sweet mohawk. Now he is an internet meme and hopes he will inspire other cool young cats to get into science.

Ferdowsi has worked on the Curiosity mission for nearly nine years. He changes his hairstyle for every major NASA mission. “It’s a fun way to celebrate the various things and this time it was the red-white-and-blue thing, which the team voted on,” he said.

“I hope I remind people that it takes all types to make these kinds of things to happen," he said. "I’m just one of those types that helped make this mission a success.”

Today the rover shared its first colour picture and NASA is celebrating with blow-by-blow coverage. Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover (@MarsCuriosity) now has more than 840,000 Twitter followers, and it has miraculously acquired a witty first-person voice.