Mission to Mars

George Takei thoughtfully shares the first image of the Martian surface from the Curiosity rover. More of Marvin the Martian here.

Back on planet Earth, with a mohawk that recalls the brush on top of Marvin's helmet, is Bobak Ferdowsi at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, about whom Chris Geidner at Buzz Feed writes:

Bobak Ferdowsi works for NASA and is a flight director on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission. Few people — fewer than 200 on Twitter — knew him before Sunday night. He cuts his hair differently for each mission, though, and tonight he became known. With a mohawk featuring maroon highlights and shaved stars on the side, Ferdowsi came only second in attention paid to the Mars Curiosity rover landing itself. He went from 200 followers to more than 10,000 during and after NASA's livestream of the landing, which was shown live on several cable news networks as well.