Space Selfie
39 comments
·May 25, 2025aerophilic
Aurornis
We just started watching Mark Rober videos. I started with some random old videos and they were great. Nice educational content in the middle of an entertaining video.
Then the algorithm handed us some more recent videos and they felt like a pivot to Nickelodeon style content: We watched Mark Rober run through a green slime obstacle course with a lot of loud noises and action, but basically zero educational value.
So as someone new to this: Any tips? Should I be sticking to old videos only if I want some educational value? My kids only watch with me as an activity we do together, so I’m always looking for good videos that can keep us away from the content farm stuff.
hlfshell
He's gone all in on the Crunch Labs brand, which is kind of built around the younger audience. This isn't a bad thing, but it does mean that older edutainment enjoyers kind of age out of his stuff. Not to say there's no value in them, but there will be more of an entertainment focus than prior edutainment focused videos.
I recommend checking out Stuff Made Here; great build videos of engineering principles in an entertaining fashion to show building cool complicated stuff.
Xyla Foxlin, a wonderful maker, also posts educational videos between her projects, like an in-depth look at how plane wings work.
ryanisnan
> Stuff Made Here
Whenever I am feeling smart or particularly talented, I like watching Shane's videos. I'm swiftly reminded that I have no idea what the hell I'm doing and carry on.
aaronblohowiak
Veritasium is cool, too!
I like practical engineering, but my kids aren't ready for how awesome Grady is... yet.
npinsker
Great recommendations. Steve Mould is another in that vein, and Kurzgesagt (though quite different stylistically) is one of my favorites and could be something you’re looking for.
borski
I’m 37, and his Hack Pack stuff has been pretty fun. Sure, it’s easy, but fun.
bradfa
The best ones seem to be the year or two just before the launch of Crunch Labs. Decent educational content, lots of excitement for engineering and science, and no real shilling. Lots of the newer stuff feels like it was created or edited by the Mr Beast team.
Some of Mark’s cameos on other channels since Crunch Labs started have been good, though.
Sander_Marechal
Take a look at the "Maker Secret Santa" series of video's. It's a yearly collaborative series between a bunch of different maker channels. It can give you a great idea as to what makers you'd like to follow.
matthewmueller
The first squirrel video might be the best youtube video ever. Surprising, entertaining, informative, accessible. I'd start there!
shemtay
i had the same experience. my solution was to configure youtube kids to only show my whitelist of mannually approved videos.
madhacker
Reminds a bit of Mr Beast
schmichael
Same! Mark Rober is what changed my mind about YouTube for kids. He's a wildly popular creator that's even shilling a product and yet... I'm ok with all of it? He seems to very legitimately care about sharing getting kids excited about STEM, and if he gets rich doing it: great! The product is less offensive than the sugary cereal I watched commercials for while watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. Definitely one of the few YouTube channels I let my kids watch unattended.
hlfshell
There's shilling a product because someone handed you a bag, and then there's building a product you believe in. You feel okay with it because it's clearly the latter versus another NordVPN commercial. Even if the product ends up failing (and I am under no predilection to believe this will) he has presented nothing but honest enthusiasm towards his goal that you can't help but root for it.
ElijahLynn
SatGus launch party (great watch) https://space.crunchlabs.com/livestream https://www.youtube.com/live/6Zqe3SJVjUM?si=CB7_3YCQTx6GqZ1x (direct)
*SatGus is named after Phat Gus from Mark Robert's squirrel obstacle course.
rossdavidh
Website has a link to a YT video that explains it, but basically free service to upload your pic, get a selfie taken on satellite in space, sent back to you. Free.
Brajeshwar
A few years back, my co-founder and I thought we should try something outside of work, something interesting but that may not be useful but fun. But we disbanded after a few discussion round without building it.
A mobile app that will help you time and position yourself along the path of your "order" where a satellite flyby and take a selfie of earth with you in it. We realize that even at an expense it might not be able to make a person out of the bigger picture and the cost would be too high. Even after enhancement (our ML Model), it won't still make significant difference of value or fun.
quelup
I sent a selfie when the YT video came out. Even though it's basically a picture of a picture, I can't help but be excited that it's being taken from actual space. Great for getting the kids excited about what engineering can do.
glassofbees
I'm really curious about the technical constraints they're working with - how much bandwidth do they have in each direction, how many images does that allow for, what resolution/format/quality are they using, how many images are in the queue, etc
mickey475778
This is such a cool project! It's amazing how accessible space exploration is becoming with initiatives like this.
iambateman
This is pretty cool. We uploaded ours a few days ago and still waiting.
My five year old son is pumped
layer8
From the FAQ it sounds like it may take a few months:
“The first batch of selfies should be returning mid-summer and we will email you ahead of time. If you want to jump closer to the front of the queue and not wait a few months, please make sure you are an active CrunchLabs subscriber (Build Box, Hack Pack). Or, if you're an educator, send an email to help@crunchlabs.com and let us know that your selfie is a class photo and we'll take your selfie first!”
ElijahLynn
Yup, got that same message!
Still an amazing thing though!
My son and I watched the launch video where they sent it up to space. Highly recommend watching that with whoever you're going to take the selfie with!
pinoy420
[dead]
jayknight
Is there a limit to what you can upload? I figure they're not just going to let people upload a million pictures, but can I do one per kid?
roydivision
It seems from my own upload that you are limited to one / email address. So yes you could just use a bunch of aliases, but I guess they're banking on most people only having access to a few addresses.
encoderer
My 7 year old got into rober videos about a year ago. Really hope she always prefers this kind of stuff to junk food like Mr Beast.
icameron
Shoot it’s getting a 504 Gateway timeout. Must be trending!
curtisszmania
[dead]
My kids have loved watching Mark Robers videos, have the subscriptions (one of both the backpack and crunchpack), and we uploaded our video for SatGus.
If you have young kids (6-15) these are perfect educational tools. Highly recommend. Only downside is some of them are a bit “mischievous”. For example a “Bobbie trap” that launches balls at whomever tripped the wire. Good times…