On Monday, Mars rover Curiosity landed with aplomb... as did the mohawk-sporting rover lead, Bobak Ferdowsi, who crash-landed into the hearts of countless geekphiles. Ferdowsi recently spoke with Shira Lazar of What's Trending, explaining that he's "still living the dream" regarding yesterday's very tense, yet successful, landing of Curiosity.

As far as his first reaction to his sudden interweb fame? "Uhhh, you know, I knew something was strange by thte number of text coming through my phone...and hundreds of emails and friend requests," Ferdowsi explains. With regard to his place in history as the Hair Battle Spectacular of NASA, he says, "If my mohawk gets a few more people excited about science and this mission, that's awesome. That's what it's all about."

Ferdowsi goes on to add that, somewhat surprisingly, the NASA team in charge of Curiosity came up with the now-famous hairstyle. In fact, he often changes his coif in order to "bring a little levity to what's otherwise a very serious situation and job."

Also worth pointing out? Bobak has a lovely smile with wonderfully blinding white teeth. Delightful.