A YouTuber Is Taking Humans To Space For Free. You Can Keep The Astronaut Suit At Home
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Mark Rober, a NASA engineer turned YouTube launched a selfie satellite 'SAT GUS' to space for humans to capture a selfie with Earth in the background.
Who Is In Space? A website devised just for space nerds gives us real-time updates of the humans currently living far away from our pale, blue dot. And if you are curious, there are 13 humans in the space at the time of writing this article. Here comes the fun part: You can be the next human up there. Assuming (politely) that you do not have a bunch of spare crores lying around to book a seat on one of those ridiculous commercial space joyrides that billionaires routinely take, a NASA engineer turned YouTuber is here to save you money and the effort. 'I Spent $5,000,000 So You Can Go To Space For FREE," Mark Rober titled his most recent YouTube video.
There must be some catch, right?
Mark Rober
YouTube's very own science educator and inventor Mark Rober is no ordinary online content creator. Rober has spent nine years at NASA, seven of which were spent on working on the Curiosity rover at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The 45-year-old has also worked at the tech giant Apple. Here, he was employed as a product designer in company's Special Projects Group and worked on virtual reality projects. The enginerd 's resume is as impressive as they come but now he's found fighting seed-stealing squirrels and glittery porch pirates in a corner of the Internet. Rober's newest project, however, has cost him over Rs 42 crore and it could perhaps be his most ambitious project on YouTube yet.
Crunch Labs
Created by Rober, Crunch Labs is a toy company for kids who 'think like an engineer". The Build Boxes work the same way as assembling a Lego does, except, Rober teaches a science lesson with every new box sent out while the kids get busy building their new toy.
(Crunch Labs)
Rober's recent Space Selfie project comes under his toy company and pet project Crunch Labs.
Space Selfie
The science educator, along with his dedicated team, launched a satellite in January this year to help humans take a Space Selfie. Made up of 7836 parts, the satellite nicknamed 'SAT GUS" left the planet aboard Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9. He, in his video, revealed he and his team spent three years on this project.
'I slept as poorly last night as I have in over a year," Rober said on the day of the launch of satellite named after the channel's beloved squirrel 'Phat Gus". 'I am very nervous. There's just a lot at stake here. There's just so many things that could go wrong, not just today, but as the satellite goes up that… it's like that nervous excitement pit in your stomach that makes you want to jump for joy and puke in the toilet."
How To Apply?
Carrying a Google Pixel screen, the YouTuber's satellite is decked with a Redwire Argus camera. All you have to do is submit your selfie to the website SpaceSelfie.com. The team will then transfer your selfie wirelessly to the SAT GUS satellite. The onboard camera will snap a photo of the Earth while displaying your selfie on the mounted screen in the foreground.
'I made a secret promise. If we somehow pull this off, I will make use of the selfie satellite free forever to anyone on the planet."
Those who have seen Mark Rober accumulate nearly 70 million subscribers on the platform were left in complete awe when the video dropped on May 24.
'Mark Rober just redefined what YouTube should be in 2025: turning childhood dreams into reality, sending selfies to space, and proving that with science, passion, and $5 million, even a squirrel can make history. Thank you for the inspiration, the tears, and the reminder that 'impossible' is just another challenge to solve," a YouTube commenter wrote.
'Mark is actually such a talented engineer despite retiring from NASA, respect to him, he also influenced me a lot into becoming a Mechanical Engineer," another wrote.
'My selfie's gonna be out of this world," a third added.
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mark rober YouTube
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New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
May 30, 2025, 12:29 IST
News explainers A YouTuber Is Taking Humans To Space For Free. You Can Keep The Astronaut Suit At Home
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