"Mohawk Guy," a Mars rover flight director, isn't just a social media sensation -- he made an impression on President Barack Obama, too. 

"I, in the past, thought about getting a mohawk myself, but my team keeps on discouraging me," Obama told scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a phone call Monday broadcast on NASA TV. 

"And now that he's received marriage proposals and thousands of new Twitter followers, I think that I'm going to go back to my team and see if it makes sense," he said to the sound of laughter from dozens of NASA employees. 

Obama called NASA mission specialists to congratulate them on the successful landing of the rover Curiosity, which reached Mars one week ago. He praised them for their achievements in the phone call, which was both laudatory and lighthearted. 

"Mohawk Guy," whose real name is Bobak Ferdowsi, has become famous for his look during the rover landing last week. As the world waited for Curiosity to touch down, Ferdowsi sported a red-and-black mohawk; the sides of his head featured yellow dyed stars. 

Decoding the workplace dress code 

"It does sound like NASA has come a long way from the white-shirt, black dark-rimmed glasses and the pocket protectors," Obama told Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Charles Elachi and colleagues. "You guys are a little cooler than you used to be." 

More seriously, Obama thanked the scientists for devoting their lives to the cause of exploration outside our planet. 

"What you've accomplished embodies the American spirit," he said. "Our expectation is that Curiosity is going to be telling us things that we did not know before," he said, and that the rover will lay the groundwork for an even more "audacious undertaking," which would be "a human mission to the red planet." 
What was it called?
Curiosity 