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<p><keyword id="1190974" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bobak-Ferdowsi">Bobak Ferdowsi</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bobak-ferdowsi-nasa-curiosity-landing-mars-mohawk2012-8" target="_blank">the man who rose to fame as the flight director of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission</a>, is having a great time at the <keyword id="6356037" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="white-house">White House</keyword> as First Lady <keyword id="27526" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Michelle-Obama">Michelle Obama</keyword>'s <keyword id="97538" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="State-of-the-Union">State of the Union</keyword> guest.</p>
<p>He has been hugging Michelle Obama and hanging out with First Dog Bo. </p>
<p>Check out his tweets:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Aaaaah WHITE HOUSE I AM IN YOU! <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23freakingout">#freakingout</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23sotu">#sotu</a></p>
— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) <a href="https://twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/status/301459611498713089">February 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>SQUEEEEEEEEEEE @<a href="https://twitter.com/flotus">flotus</a> just hugged me! <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23SOTU">#SOTU</a></p>
— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) <a href="https://twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/status/301489286153388032">February 13, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Bo excited for <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23sotu">#sotu</a> just like me! Headed to the Capitol!!!! <a href="http://t.co/yJT4QfrR" title="http://twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/status/301492180277669890/photo/1">twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/…</a></p>
— Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) <a href="https://twitter.com/tweetsoutloud/status/301492180277669890">February 13, 2013</a></blockquote>

NASA's Mohawk Guy Is Having The Time Of His Life At The White House

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Twitter/@tweetsoutloud</p></div><em>This is part of our series on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/50-sexy-scientists-2013-2">Sexiest Scientists Alive</a>.</em></p>
<p>Bobak Ferdowsi, the mystery man who <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bobak-ferdowsi-nasa-curiosity-landing-mars-mohawk2012-8">made waves over the summer for his rocker hairdo</a> during <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="69295" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Curiosity">Curiosity</keyword> Rover landing on <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword>, has quickly become an icon.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old is a system engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with a jam-packed schedule.</p>
<p>Since he hit the big time during <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-behind-mars-curiosity-rover-2012-12?op=1">the rover landing in August</a>, he's been to visit the White House <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mohawk-bobak-ferdowsi-state-of-union-michelle-obama-2013-2">during the state of the union address</a>, walked in the inauguration parade, and even got to meet the First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Dog, Bo.</p>
<p>We've dug up a few interesting facts about the mystery "mohawk guy" that everyone wants to know about.</p>

NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' Bobak Ferdowsi On The Perks Of NASA, Space Camp, And His First Kiss

<p></p>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div>
<div class="image on-image">
<p class="source"><span><a href="http://themeridianijournal.com/2014/05/nasa-seeking-concepts-mission-europa/">NASA / JPL-Caltech</a></span></p>
<p class="caption">Europa floats in front of Jupiter.</p>
</img></div>
<p></p>
</div></div>
<p>The hunt for extraterrestrial life just grew a little hotter.</p>
<p>On Monday, during his "State of NASA" speech, administrator <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2qkdSvV_Ng">Charles Bolden announced</a> that NASA will be selecting projects to accompany a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa.</p>
<p>Floating in space about 390 million miles from earth, Europa is a remote ice ball that harbors a massive ocean underneath its surface.</p>
<p>So massive, in fact, that scientists suspect Europa could have as much as <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120524.html">two to three times more liquid water</a> than Earth!</p>
<p>Judging from the abundance of life thriving in Earth's oceans: Where there's liquid water, there's the potential for life.</p>
<p>Not only that, Europa is absolutely gorgeous:</p>
<p></p>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div>
<div class="image on-image">
<p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19048">NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute</a></span></p>
</img></div>
<p></p>
</div></div>Europa is about 1,900 miles in diameter - slightly smaller than our moon. The brown veins that give the moon it's iconic beauty are still a mystery, but the leading theory is that they show where Europa's crust cracked open letting warmer, dirtier water seep through and then freeze.
<p>Jupiter's strong gravitational tug on the tiny moon generates tidal forces that stretch the entire surface - similar to how the Moon's gravity tugs the water in Earth's oceans, creating tides. The stretching then cracks the crust letting water deeper beneath the surface to seap through.</p>
<p>But that's not the only impact the gas giant has on its moon. As NASA astrobiologist Kevin Hand explains in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9VhCQbPAk#t=28">video</a> about Europa:</p>
<p>The reason that Europa has liquid water is because it's orbiting Jupiter and the tidal tug and pull causes Europa to flex up and down and all that tidal energy turns into friction and heat that helps maintain this liquid water ocean beneath and icy shell.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div>
<div class="image on-image">
<p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.universetoday.com/111710/nasa-seeks-ideas-for-mission-to-europa/">NASA</a></span></p>
</img></div>
<p></p>
</div></div>Below is a close up of the circular impact crater in the southern hemisphere in the image above. <a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01211">Called Pwyll</a>, the impact crater is a relatively new feature on the surface of Europa, and it is also compelling evidence of the enormous ocean sloshing underneath the surface.
<p>Scientists suspect that when the impactor hit, it splattered fresh, fine water ice particles everywhere that now show up as the bright-white arms adorning the moon's face around the darker crater. NASA's Galileo spacecraft - the only probe to flyby Europa more than once - took the image below in 1998. Showing the darker crater, which is about 16 miles in diameter.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div>
<div class="image on-image">
<p class="source"><span><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01211">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</a></span></p>
</img></div>
<p></p>
</div></div>The impact crater's arms reach far across the surface. Even 620 miles north of the crater you can see evidence of the white streaks in the awesome close-up shot below.
<p>The white and blue colors are the residual ice particles from the blast. Galileo snapped this photo of this region, which is 44 miles wide by 19 miles long, in 1996.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div>
<div class="image on-image">
<p class="source"><span><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01127">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</a></span></p>
</img></div>
<p></p>
</div></div>Even though humans have never sent a probe to the surface of Europa, the beautiful moon has been a hot topic of interest for many years. And just last year, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasa-seeks-external-concepts-for-mission-to-oceanic-jovian-moon/#.VNAWzVXF-7H">NASA issued a Request for Information</a> to the scientific community to offer up their ideas on the best, economically viable approach to study this amazing moon.
<p>Now, it looks like some of those ideas might have paid off as scientists look forward to learning more about the future mission to Europa this spring.</p>
<p>Twitter users expressed their excitement about the latest news:</p>
<div><div>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
  <p>
   Good news, everyone! MT"<a href="https://twitter.com/NASA">@NASA</a>: "we're planning a mission to explore Jupiter's moon Europa."-Bolden<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateOfNASA?src=hash">#StateOfNASA</a> <a href="http://t.co/MlKekkPsww">pic.twitter.com/MlKekkPsww</a>"  </p>- Bobak Ferdowsi  (@tweetsoutloud) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/562331165365768196">February 2, 2015</a>
 </blockquote>
 
</div></div>
<p class="embed-spacer"></p>
<div><div>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
  <p>
   Best news EVER"<a href="https://twitter.com/NASA">@NASA</a>:"...we're planning a mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa."-Bolden <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateOfNASA?src=hash">#StateOfNASA</a> <a href="http://t.co/2YSlMSIzkk">pic.twitter.com/2YSlMSIzkk</a>"  </p>- Sophia Nasr  (@Pharaoness) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/562365383584542721">February 2, 2015</a>
 </blockquote>
 
</div></div>
<p class="embed-spacer"></p>
<div><div>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
  <p>
   Don't mind me, I'll just be over here doing a happy dance because THERE'S MONEY FOR A EUROPA MISSIOOOOON!!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Geeked?src=hash">#Geeked</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateOfNASA?src=hash">#StateOfNASA</a>  </p>- Stephanie Evans  (@StephEvz43) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/562331315878391808">February 2, 2015</a>
 </blockquote>
 
</div></div>
<p class="embed-spacer"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2qkdSvV_Ng">Check out a video</a> of the State of NASA address announced on Monday:</p>
<div><div>
 
</div></div>

NASA just announced they'll be visiting this beautiful moon for the first time

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes" title_caption="The Curiosity rover mission team celebrates the landing of the car-size robot on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a4565269bedd5540fa45f4-960/ap285836030145.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</span></p><p class="caption">The Curiosity rover mission team celebrates the landing of the car-size robot on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. </p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>On Aug. 5, 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-to-watch-mars-rover-curiosity-land-2012-8" target="_blank">touched down on the surface</a> of Mars. Its mission: To find out if Mars could have once supported life. Now the car-size rover's prime mission has officially come to an end on Tuesday, June 24.</p>
<p>That doesn't mean Curiosity will be put out to pasture. She'll still be doing <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> on Mars and returning crucial data about the atmosphere and surface of the cold, red planet.</p>
<p>As the main investigation comes to a close, we spoke to chief scientist John Grotzinger, who has been directing the mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He talked about Curiosity's biggest discoveries and one of the darkest moments during the mission.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>[A lightly edited transcript of the interview follows]</em></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Business Insider:</strong> How are you feeling now?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>John <span>Grotzinger</span>:</strong> We feel really great about what we've been able to do. We're hopeful that NASA will continue the mission. We are in the stretch of the fastest driving that we've done the entire mission so far. Now we're trying to get toward Mount Sharp. We've had 16 papers published and two papers in Science magazine. We met all of the goals in advance. It doesn't feel like mission over.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" title_caption="This is the first self-portrait Curiosity took after landing on Mars. It's a bit fuzzy, but the pictures got better as the mission progressed." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/502336aa6bb3f79e6c000005-960/curiosity-2.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674861main_pia16012-full_full.jpg">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">This is the first self-portrait Curiosity took after landing on Mars. It's a bit fuzzy, but the pictures got better as the mission progressed.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BI:</strong> The last two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, also outlived their prime mission, by many, many years. Why is the main investigation so short if you know the machines can beat these expectations and how long do you expect Curiosity to last?</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>JG:</strong> NASA defines a set of objectives that the spacecraft is supposed to achieve within a timeframe, which was one Mars year or a little less than two years for Curiosity. The warranty on Curiosity expires in June, but we can see Curiosity's vital signs working really well so we expect it to keep going. Curiosity is different than past rovers because it doesn't have solar power, it has nuclear power. The way we generate power is that the radioactive device generates heat. There's a device called the thermocouple, which converts heat to electricity. We can monitor its lifespan. We know we are going to get another good five years. After another seven years, we are going to be generating enough power to keep vehicle going, but not too much more. In 10 years, we expect to see significant degradation.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BI:</strong> What is the Curiosity team going to do now?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>JG:</strong> A lot of team is now going to transition over to the <a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/" target="_blank">Mars 2020</a> mission. That's the year it's going to launch. I'm going to stick with Curiosity and make sure we make it to the base of Mount Sharp.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Getty Images" title_caption="Flight director Bobak Ferdowsi became an Internet sensation on the night of the rover landing because of his stars-and-stripes mohawk." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/512707336bb3f7500f000004-960/bobak-6.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Flight director Bobak Ferdowsi became an Internet sensation on the night of the rover landing because of his stars-and-stripes mohawk.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>BI: </strong>How do you feel attached to Curiosity besides being the lead investigator?</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>JG:</strong> You can't help but become emotionally attached to these robots even though they are mechanical devices. When something happens to Curiosity we not only feel the impact of the vehicle on Mars, but also on collective collaboration here. We watch everything she does. We watch the previous Mars rover, Opportunity, as she gets older and the same thing will eventually happen to Curiosity.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BI: </strong>Can you sum up the top three discoveries of the prime mission?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>JG:</strong> The number one thing would be discovering evidence of habitability, meaning that we found an ancient environment where microorganisms could have lived and reproduced. If life ever evolved on Mars, this would have been place of it.</p>
<p class="p2">The second would be discovering and confirming something that had been guessed at in the 1970s: Mars lost a lot of its atmosphere billions of years ago. It became the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-mars-looked-like-4-billion-years-ago-2013-11">planet it is today</a> probably around 3 billion years ago.</p>
<p class="p2"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="NASA/JPL-Caltech" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/50d4a455ecad044368000009-960/mars rover-1.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">Third, the place that we discovered that was habitable was younger than what we thought. What we though had been the "goldilocks window," the time when the planet was habitable, was broader than what we thought before.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">BI: </strong>Is there one day throughout the mission or challenge you faced that you would never want to relive again?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>JG:</strong> Back in December, we had just published a series of papers that had proven the evidence of habitability early on. It even made the cover of Science. Two days later, I was alerted of pictures that showed the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/curiosity-rover-wheels-wear-and-tear-2013-12">wheels had holes in them</a>. The place we had landed in was very hazardous to the wheels. We got a flat on Mars. We developed a strategy to work around it and now are safely driving. But I would not want to go through that again. We had to stop driving when what we wanted to be doing was driving. We went from the greatest emotional high to the greatest emotion low in two days. It would have been nice to bask in glow of success a little longer.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="NASA" title_caption="The red circles highlight tears in one of Curiosity's tires." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a4996f69bedde556228d89-960/curiosity-2-4.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">The red circles highlight tears in one of Curiosity's tires.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>BI: </strong>In the first year of the mission you said something to a reporter about a discovery that Curiosity made, which got picked up by other media (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-rover-curiosity-major-discovery-2012-11">including us</a>) and somewhat blown out of proportion. What have you learned about the power of social media in this process?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>JG:</strong> Social media is a wonderful thing. The overwhelming majority is so positive because the things you discover can be shared. We made the decision to return all images so people get to enjoy Mars the way they want. You do have to learn to be careful and explicit about what you mean.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>BI: </strong>How soon do you think we'll be able to put a person on Mars?</p>
<p><strong>JG:</strong> The first thing we have to do is figure out how to bring rocks back. The difference between the moon and Mars is that the moon is a small body. With propulsion, it doesn't take much energy to get off he surface. But Mars is big and it has gravity. You have to learn how to build a vehicle that can go to Mars, land successfully, and then lift off. But first we have to figure out the simple challenge of taking a 20 kilogram rock and lifting it off the surface of the planet.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BI:</strong> Do believe in programs like Mars One?</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>JG:</strong> In principle it's possible.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BI:</strong> How are celebrating the end of the prime mission?</p>
<p>There's going to be a big celebration on June 26. Engineers feel like they have delivered on their promise and built a vehicle that lasted a long time. Yes, there will be champagne.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">Curiosity weighs about 1 ton and is around the size of SUV.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>BI:</strong> Where is Curiosity going now?</p>
<p>We have 4 to 6 months of driving and are making great progress. We're going to try to get to Mount Sharp by the end of the calendar year.</p>

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