NASA "Mohawk Guy" To Host Radio Show

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory mission that lowered the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface in early August, will host a two-hour online broadcast on Internet radio station Third Rock Radio at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, August 30. The show, entitled 'Getting Curious with the Mohawk Guy,' will feature Ferdowsi discussing his experience with the landing of Curiosity, NASA’s evolving image, and renewed interest in science and exploration."

Comments

What a wonderful face for JPL

[wb8wsf]

I wish Boback the best of luck on this show, and lots more in the future.

Imagine, if people start thinking of science folks as neat...

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[cachimaster]

Not much. Her perception is only clean cut men in suits are successful. Any deviation in hair cut alone branded one as a hooligan.

To be fair with your grandmother, her generalization was correct during most of her life. Until 2011 spacecraft were designed and controlled by clean cut men.

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[circletimessquare]

your grandmother does not need to find science appealing, a generation still in school does

the mohawk is a gimmick. a gimmick in the service of good

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[Anonymous Coward]

>> the embracing of pop-culture causes me to take the United States of America less seriously, and causes me to question my support of the country

Yes, clearly a man with a mohawk is what makes America look bad. Not our war on drugs, wars on brown desert dwelling people, repression of gays, electing of disgraceful politicians like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum [spreadingsantorum.com], or the fact that just weeks ago the civil rights debate in this nation hinged on buying a fucking chicken sandwich?

What. The. Fuck.

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[wmac1]

FYI The correct name is "Babak Ferdowsi".

Both first and family names are famous Iranian names. "Babak" is the famous Iranian revoloutionaray leader (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babak_Khorramdin ) and "Ferdowsi" is perhaps the most famous Iranian poet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdowsi ).

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[rommi04]

If I were an astronaut I would want guys in the control room to have the clean-cut NASA-circa-1969 look. I would not trust my life to the guys that were in the control room during the Curiosity landing. I'm sure they are good at their jobs but they just don't look very professional to me.

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[Daniel Dvorkin]

If I were an astronaut I would want guys in the control room to have the clean-cut NASA-circa-1969 look. I would not trust my life to the guys that were in the control room during the Curiosity landing. I'm sure they are good at their jobs but they just don't look very professional to me.

I have a picture of my father when he was a NASA engineer for Apollo. Ponytail, beard, work shirt and jeans, which was pretty typical for those in his age group (the older engineers did tend toward the crew-cut-and-starched-shirt look). Yeah, the guys in the control room where the TV cameras could see them looked clean-cut and "professional," but a lot of the ones who actually built the machines and made them go didn't bother with that crap, because they knew--as any sensible person should--that real professionalism isn't something you can put on like a costume. This is as true now as it was then.

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[Sigg3.net]

Where I work, everyone wearing suits wants to be bosses, everyone wearing loose shirts and baggy pants just want to get the job done.

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[mcvos]

I recently read that Apollo 13 was actually saved by a hippie, and NASA quickly buried that fact, because they only wanted it to appear as if spacecraft were only designed and controlled by clean cut men..

Re:What a wonderful face for JPL

[overlordofmu]

You do realize that suits and ties are dress-up costumes. They are in no way functional or necessary. Just like judge's robes are costumes.

Business and law both rely on a great deal of theatrics to present the image of legitimacy. And these theatrics are enough for people like grandma and you that would prefer to make snap judgments based on illogical assumptions in place of actually thinking.

Your apathy and love of tradition is holding the world back. Please begin to question the basic tenants of Western civilization so we can fix it before it is too late.

Re:Yes

[afgam28]

Ridiculous isn't it? A bunch of people land a fucking robot on Mars, and everyone's attention is on one of the guys' haircut.

Colorful Metaphors

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Some of you may not know who this "Mohawk Guy" is. He was originally born and raised in San Fransisco. By his early 20's he was a drifter, directionless and alone. He'd ride the bus all around downtown San Fran playing his boom-box too loud, much to the annoyance of the public. His spiked hair and bracelets discouraged just about everyone from voicing their opinion on the noise level until one day he met his match. Two brave men, both with thousands of hours of flight experience, boarded the bus and sat across from him. One man, noone ever knew his name, politely asked that he turn off that damn noise. He gestured rudely and turned his music up. The other man reached across the aisle and firmly pinched the man's neck, instantly rendering him unconscious, the boombox silenced the moment his head landed on it.

This unexpected event gave him a new direction in life to pursue. He went back to school and studied hard. Twenty years later he found himself working on the Curiosity Project. And the end result of that goal? He broadcast that damn noise as loud as he wanted where it would bother nobody: Mars.

Noone knows the fate of the two airmen that boarded the bus that fateful day. Rumors persist that one was a burnt-out hippy that went to Berkley. However, noone was able to find any documentation of a man entering the hospital overdosed on LDS.

One thing is certain: It will be centuries before we see all the profound effects this guy has had on the timeline.

Re:Colorful Metaphors

[MightyMartian]

As opposed to the guy who invented transparent aluminum, and ended up floating face down in the swimming pool of his sprawling Bel Air mansion, a pound of cocaine on the patio table, fourth wife, a 21 year old named Bunny passed out in the living room after a two-day long crystal meth binge and a couple of beach bums living in the guest house and using the hot tub to wash their clothes. Poor bastard couldn't deal with success and in his last months was heard blaming his out of control irritable bowel syndrome and his wife's predilection for cheating on him with the entire male staff of a nearby Starbucks on some crazy Scotsman who had given him the secret formula for transparent aluminum, talked into computer mice and consulted some grizzled-looking weirdo about the effects of time travel.

Re:Yes

[paleo2002]

Remember when you were in school and bored? You'd look around the room or out the window for anything remotely distracting because you didn't understand or didn't care about what was going on in the classroom.

Welcome to the current state of science journalism.

Re:Yes

[WankersRevenge]

Well, he was actually interviewed on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me a few weeks ago (you can find it online at npr). Evidently, he gets a different haircut for each mission and it was the team who voted him the Mohawk.

It's the other guy - the former rocker turned physicist who managed the landing of the rover - who I find to be the interesting one of the bunch.

But really, I don't care who's getting the camera time. so much as the mission hasn't been forgotten.

I swear, the landing of the rover reminded me of the ending of the truman show. Everyone goes nuts at Trumans escape, and when the show ends, some dude asks, "whats on next?"

I dont care if you call it Radio

[Osgeld]

if its internet only its a live stream or a podcast, for it to be a radio show it needs to be broadcast on ... I dunno RADIO?

any moron can stream audio on the internet, its not quite the same as fighting for limited air time.

Re:Yes

[_Shad0w_]

So basically he's doing what Gene Kranz used to do with waistcoats, but using his hair instead?

How should NASA reach out to adults in tech?

[trout007]

I am curious to hear what /.ers would like to see from NASA in terms of outreach. It seems most of the work goes towards kids. I'm not against that but many technical people would like to know more about what NASA is doing at a more technical level.

What types of things should NASA be doing? For instance release CAD models of rovers so people can build one in ther 3D printer or release the code for the software flight systems.

Re:How should NASA reach out to adults in tech?

[spire3661]

I recently wrote a letter to NASA asking them to step up their 'adult' coverage. Kids are great but god damn it, i love space too.

Re:How should NASA reach out to adults in tech?

[trout007]

Please give examples of what you want.

Re:How should NASA reach out to adults in tech?

[spire3661]

What i want is for them to NOT cut coverage of the lander SECONDS after we got confirmation it was safe. The landing team checklist was valuable info and they cut out to the NASA TV anchor. What I want is to NOT focus on a team members haircut to pander to kids. What I want is for them to realize sending a teacher to space is stupid. I want NASA to be NASA, a bastion of science, not pandering

Skip a few steps

[PopeRatzo]

OK, now that the "Mohawk Guy" is on the fame conveyer belt, how long before he's on Dancing with the Stars?

Maybe we can just skip straight to the Mohawk Guy porn parody.

Re:No offense to the guy...

[Jedi Alec]

When I read posts like yours, I can't help but see a Dalek screaming: "Conformity! Conformity!"

You may want to consider just to what extent you've been programmed to automatically associate certain looks with certain values. While prejudice saves a lot of time, it tends to make one miss out on a lot of interesting folks.

Re:Oh for God's sake

[jon3k]

Wow you really don't get it do you? This is about changing the image of a group of people who've typically considered boring. It was INTERESTING because it was DIFFERENT. Not sure how you don't understand that.

the dude thinks his mohawk is just a gimmick

[circletimessquare]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobak_Ferdowsi

Ferdowsi became a media "sensation", or "meme",[8] when during the August 6, 2012, landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, he wore an unusual mohawk hairstyle that was seen on NASA TV's live broadcast of the event. As the Flight Director he was in a prominent camera position and his mohawk unexpectedly became an iconic image of the landing.[9][10][11] Ferdowsi explained that he wore a new haircut for every mission and the mohawk was chosen by his team by popular vote.[12]
When President Barack Obama called to congratulate the team, he noted the popularity of the "Mohawk guy," saying "You guys are a little cooler than you used to be."[13] Ferdowsi said in another interview that he did it to help lighten the seriousness of the workplace and "If my mohawk gets a few more people excited about science and this mission, that’s awesome."[6]