Speaking of Mohawks
NASA’s 7 Minutes of ‘Mohawk Guy’ Goes Viral, PC Magazine
“Meanwhile, the Mohawk Guy puzzle may have been solved, but there were other curiosities in the JPL’s Curiosity broadcast that have yet to surrender their mysteries. We’ll leave you with this: Embedded below is the video showing the reaction at mission control when Curiosity’s landing was confirmed. Ferdowsi is there, of course, but see if you can also spot Old Hippy Guy and Jump-the-Gun-Celebration Guy.”
Keith’s note: Word has it that the head of Mars TSA (picture to the right) has been fired after allowing Mars Curiosity and its laser to land on Mars undetected. Speaking of mohawks … if you watched *any* MSL landing coverage you saw Internet nerd icon “the Mohawk guy” (Bobak Ferdowsi) sitting at his console. You can follow him at @tweetsoutloud .
JPL folks are notoriously open about expressing their emotions and individuality during landings at mission control (think back to the Pathfinder landing) yet they do things as equally amazing as are done from JSC and KSC. Yet you’d never see a mohawk in MCC or LCC. Why is that?
What is it with people’s obsession with hair – first Gabby Douglas now Curiosity’s flight director??! What’s next, tweets about how Curiosity has fat @ss?
I like big rover and I cannot lie.
What is it with people’s obsession with hair
Must have been a slow news day.
Ah, NewSpace. Gone forever, is the short sleeve white shirt, tie, pocket protector and crew cut. Welcome to the new generation!
Surf dude and cyber punk almost sitting rght next to each other. America’s high school detention class in charge of a Mars mission. I ask you, how could they fail? No way!
You know, I couldn’t care less if Bobak Ferdowsi was the splitting image of Marvin the Martian and was wearing a clown suit; he and the others did a fabulous job and deserve nothing but congratulations for it, yet the internuts focus on his hair.
For the record, I’m pushing 60 and I still have my Marvin the Martian T-shirt and still wear it regularly. I think Marvin was right — man is the most interesting insect on Earth!
A hearty “well done” to the entire MSL team and everyone who has supported them.
Steve
Mohawk guy = win. Anything space related (and positive) going viral is good to see
JSC console operations is very much into stoicicsm and professionalism. If you are jumping about, flapping your arms and hugging, then you are not paying attention to your job. You might not see that critical red alarm. Think Gene Kranz. Think cool under pressure. Think Right Stuff. And wearing a Mohawk, or an American flag, or doing something to get the camera pointed at you, would be seen as putting your own ego over the needs of the mission.
Some of JPL is similar, but the JPL Mars program is its own thing. Pathfinder was a small team that succeeded with a real long-shot, and well, why not celebrate? The Pathfinder people almost all moved on to Spirit and Opportunity and that cumulative group moved on to Curiosity, and the culture moved with them. The culture, the peer pressure really, is not to remain “in control”, but rather to go crazy happy when anything good happens. And if that red alarm were to pop up, the ~40 minute light time delay means the rover has to respond, not the people on console.
Not better or worse, just different.
From what I understand, JSC does plenty of arm-flapping and hugging and celebrating too, but there’s a time and place for it. I recall hearing about many wild splashdown and landing parties at the Hofbraugarten and the Outpost Tavern, which, sadly, were both before my time (yes, I know I’m outing myself as a young whippersnapper here…). If I understand correctly, there’s still some of that culture present in the yearly JSC Chili Cookoff.
As you said, not better or worse, just different.
While I worked in MOD/JSC, I maintained the long hair despite the strange looks I received. Even though I could have worked back room support, I am not sure I would ever have made it to front room for shuttle or iss without losing it…that is just my opinion though.
JSC console operations is very much into stoicicsm and professionalism. If you are jumping about, flapping your arms and hugging, then you are not paying attention to your job. You might not see that critical red alarm. Think Gene Kranz. Think cool under pressure. Think Right Stuff. And wearing a Mohawk, or an American flag shirt, or doing something to get the camera pointed at you, would be seen as putting your own ego over the mission.
Some of JPL is similar, but the JPL Mars program is its own thing. Pathfinder was a small team that succeeded with a real long-shot, and well, why not celebrate? The Pathfinder people almost all moved on to Spirit and Opportunity and that cumulative group moved on to Curiosity; the culture moved with them. The culture, the peer pressure really, is not to remain “in control”, but rather to go crazy happy when anything good happens. And if that red alarm were to pop up and require rapid resolution, the 40 minute light time delay means the rover has to respond, not the people on console.
Not better or worse, just different.
As someone who works at JPL (and formerly of Houston), one of the reasons I’m here is the west coast culture. I wouldn’t work somewhere that forced me to cut my hair or had a dress code. That’s true of a lot of people here – we prefer being at a Caltech FFRDC.
Second, as far as red alarms and such go, the rover was already on the surface well before the celebrations started. With such a long light flight time everything was autonomous; the majority of those people were just watching telemetry. It’s not like they could do much about it. And once it was on the surface, I believe they turned control over to another team.
I’ve never been on a planetary landing team, but I have been on a flight team during a launch. There’s no experience like it (that I’ve had anyway), of the thrill of watching a decade of work by thousands of people all coming together on this razor’s edge moment as your roar through the final checklists. My hair literally stands on end. If I were in that room I would have been alternately high-fiving and crying from the release.
I think what we’ve seen of JPL culture over the past few days is fantastic. To get to your last question, though:
“Yet you’d never see a mohawk in MCC or LCC. Why is that?”
I’m guessing it’s at least in part because lives are on the line at the MCC and LCC. That would certainly make me more subdued.
cb,
I’ve never worked a planetary landing team, but I don’t think we have to in order to understand the emotions that they were experiencing at the magic moment. Many of us have worked programs that went on for months or years and became the main, perhaps sole, focus of our careers during that period. When the key events happen, it’s an emotional experience, and anyone who forces themselves, or is forced, to play it cool is being dishonest (unless they really are a cold fish).
When the package arrives at its destination, when the final test result is positive, and when the key items on the program checklists get ticked off, these are genuinely emotional experiences even though you knew they were coming, and I strongly believe that any work culture/environment which deliberately stifles the positive emotional reactions of the people who worked so hard to make the magic happen is in serious need of review. People don’t strive for success so that some overlord can shut them down during their moments of greatest accomplishment. I don’t care if the Queen of England is in the room standing right beside them, when people have earned a moment of heartfelt celebration and congratulation, you not only allow it, you do your best to encourage it. Anyone who can’t see this has no business managing people.
Even for those people who’s involvement is limited to the building of hardware it is, at times, still an emotional experience. When the finished item goes out the door after so many months or years or hard work, a little piece of each person who worked on it goes with it. So, I can see why JPL and its west coast culture attracts you in a way that Houston never would. I hope that at the key moments, all of your future programs will cause your hair to stand on end, and that’ll high-five your team mates for those of us who can’t be there. I think you have exactly the right attitude.
Steve
One word: California.
It’s not just a state, it’s a state of mind.
I didn’t mean to imply that. I like his style and I’m personally not exactly the gold standard for work dress code. 😉 What I meant was that it’s a different environment when human lives are involved. It would be nice if image didn’t matter, but let’s face it: if, heaven forbid, a human Mars landing failed, people are going to look at the MCC for solace. A celebratory hair style would result in a fair amount of unwanted attention.
Evolution of culture. Odds are one of the controllers for a manned Mars landing will have a nose ring and other non-traditional piercings, and a couple of them will have visible tats on their arms and neck…
But they’ll all be as stoic and Cool-Hand Luke as Krantz if it hits the fan during a mission…they’ll just go into the bathroom to cry…
A voice control operator at GSFC had a mohawk for a short amount of time. Within a few days, he was “talked to.”