Camp CrunchLabs (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

This is the spore from a kind of moss
that only grows in the forest.
And just in case that sounds super boring,
wait until you see what it does
when you get it near a flame.
[whooshing]
[slow-motion laugh]
Welcome back to Space Camp CrunchLabs.
I'm Mark Rober, and this is week two
of your least boring summer ever.
[theme music playing]
Hey ♪
[vocalizing]
Hey ♪
[music ends]
And in case
you're just catching up with us
and noticing things are looking
a little bit different this time,
that's because this year,
it's not just Camp CrunchLabs.
It's Space Camp CrunchLabs.
And that means that each episode,
I will be packing up my backyard
and moving it to a different planet
in our solar system.
This way, we can take some time
to appreciate the mind-blowing aspects
of all eight planets
orbiting around our sun.
RIP Pluto.
Now, as a reminder, we've assigned you
three different summer Super Challenges.
These, of course,
are those engineering challenges
that you record yourself doing
to win an all-expense-paid trip
to come out here to visit me
and my team at CrunchLabs
for an afternoon of epic fun and science.
You've got a Rube Goldberg machine
like these,
but this year,
it needs to somehow include some water.
And then there's the epic slo-mo shot.
But of course, this summer,
it's gotta have googly eyes.
And then finally, a reverse video
where you play a video backwards
that somehow incorporates some food.
And I have to say, you guys have crushed
these challenges over the past few years.
Let's just take a quick look at what
all you space geniuses came up with.
Welcome to CrunchLabs. Let's go in.
CrunchLabs!
[both] Whoa! Whoa!
[jaunty music playing]
Whee!
[growling]
[smacks]
[straining]
[grunts] The monster!
- Hello!
- [woman shouts]
[knocking]
Hey.
Will you go to the dance with me?
- [beeping]
- [pitched-up screaming]
Oh well.
- Donovan, you forgot the door!
- [Donovan] Sorry!
[jaunty music resumes]
[thudding]
[screaming]
[notes playing]
Charmander!
[kids shouting]
[chittering]
Ah! I'm about to die!
- [music ends]
- Thank you for saving our kitty.
And honestly, I shouldn't be surprised,
but for year three,
for Space Camp CrunchLabs,
you guys brought it.
With the help of a parent,
submit a video of yourself completing
any of the Super Challenges
to CampCrunchLabs.com.
You'll be automatically entered
into a chance to win this bad boy.
The Platinum Ticket, which means
I'm gonna hop on that spaceship,
head back to Planet Earth
so I can meet you
when you come hang out at CrunchLabs
to do a bunch of epic science experiments.
[laughing]
So I just finished unpacking
and setting up camp
once again on an asteroid
because the planet we're visiting today
has no moon.
Can you guess where we're at?
There's a clue right there. There she is.
We are outside the orbit of Venus.
And as a reminder, that's to scale.
As we visit each of the planets,
you will see how big Venus is,
say, compared to Jupiter.
Spoiler alert. Much, much smaller.
And although she looks
absolutely stunning and beautiful,
do not let that beauty fool you,
because if you were
on a vacation to one planet,
honestly, your absolute last choice
should be Venus.
First of all, it's pretty toasty,
like 900 degrees Fahrenheit toasty.
That's hot enough to melt lead.
And then on top of that,
there's an enormous amount of pressure
at the surface of Venus due to
the really dense atmosphere above it,
which means that even if
you sent a submarine there,
it would just absolutely crush it,
which is wild
because submarines are meant to withstand
a tremendous amount of pressure.
That means every single spacecraft
that us humans have sent to Venus
has lasted at most a few hours,
while most of them
haven't even made it to the surface.
All right, well, with that,
let's get to this week's special guests.
[snaps fingers]
Nathan and Gabe, Unspeakable.
Welcome. I hope you guys
weren't doing anything important.
I was just in the bathroom.
How did I get here?
- Nothing important, hopefully.
- I was just walking.
Just walking.
What's the craziest thing you've built?
Ooh. Um, last week,
I completed a LEGO set.
Took me an hour and 22 minutes.
Exactly?
- [bell dings]
- Yeah.
Well, welcome to the planet Venus.
Technically, we're on an asteroid
orbiting the planet Venus.
That's it up there.
So you know what the hottest planet is?
- Venus.
- How'd you guess?
[laughing]
- Isn't this Planet Venus?
- This is Venus. You're right.
- That was actually a random guess.
- And because of that, the theme is fire.
So let's go over to the picnic table,
because we got
some fire-related science to do.
All right. I said fire, but then
we're starting with a bowl of ice water.
- Ooh.
- Okay.
- What happens if I touch it?
- Bad things.
- That's Venus ice water!
- Oh!
It's not just us,
because we have some campers here.
I think they stowed away on the rocket.
Campers?
Hi.
Hey, Mark!
What the heck?
Where were you guys hiding in there?
We were in the secret chamber.
The secret chamber. If you're gonna hide
somewhere, that seems like the place.
Well, get the heck on down here.
All right. We got Bija and Xavier.
Welcome to Venus.
You know it's good
'cause we're passing out safety goggles.
Xavier or Bija,
do you know any facts about Venus?
- It's the hottest planet.
- It is the hottest planet.
What's something you see a lot
when things are hot, Xavier?
- Fire. [chuckles]
- [Mark] Fire.
Now, of course,
you should not play with fire.
But what we're gonna do here
is play with fire,
because we are trained professionals.
That is a hot flame.
Now, I have just a soda can here.
And at the bottom,
there's a little bit of water.
What's gonna to happen is
I'm heating it up.
And as you heat up water,
what happens to it?
- Boil.
- [Mark] It boils and turns to what?
- Water.
- [music warps]
Steam.
- A form of water called steam.
- Yes.
What we're gonna demonstrate here…
There's another property of Venus.
It's very hot,
but the pressure is very high.
So you know what high pressure
would do to a soda can?
Explode it like a balloon?
It could explode.
- Or what's the opposite of explode?
- Shrink?
You wanna see a soda can shrink real fast?
- Okay, that's scary.
- [Mark laughs]
Look at that.
The coolest way to crush your soda can.
Anyone have a guess
as to why that happened?
Maybe 'cause it's, like, so hot,
and then there's, like, cold stuff,
and then it cools?
That's right.
So when gases are really hot,
they move around and they expand.
So as soon as you put it in the ice water,
all those air molecules contract,
which would shrink it all down.
- Guys, there's an alien.
- [all] What?
An alien?
Who goes there?
- Hi, guys.
- [Bija] Oh, Science Bob.
Ah, it's just Science Bob.
What the heck are you doing here?
What are the chances you would be
on the same asteroid I vacation at?
Very high. We have the same travel agent.
- Camp's already started?
- Yeah, get over here, Bob.
- We're doing some experiments.
- What's the theme?
- Fire.
- Oh, I got some good ones.
I'll go into my shuttle
and get some stuff.
- [Mark] Okay.
- I'm scared.
You didn't tell me
we're doing fire experiments.
Well, you seem prepared.
- I always keep fire experiments handy.
- That is true.
I wanna show you something
that everyone has already seen.
I'm gonna burn a piece of paper.
This is regular paper.
We're gonna light in the corner here.
We're gonna let that burn.
- Boring.
- Wait, who thought it was cool?
- I thought it was cool.
- All right!
Yeah, fire.
All those who think it was boring,
raise your hand.
- I thought it was kinda cool.
- Let's show you something else.
Now, this is also
just a regular piece of paper,
but it was soaked in a little something
called nitrocellulose.
- Mark, I'm gonna have you hold this.
- Yep, you got it.
- By a corner.
- Okay.
And it's gonna start to burn.
Before it reaches your finger,
you can let go.
- Okay.
- Three, two, one.
- [shrieks]
- [all] Oh!
- [laughing]
- It's gone.
- Oh my God.
- It's gone.
- [Science Bob] Gone.
- It was here, then it was gone.
Regular paper has all those ashes.
This burns without any ashes.
We basically added
an extra source of oxygen.
- You guys wanna give it a try?
- Yeah.
[suspenseful music rises]
- Nathan, go ahead.
- Me? Come on, dude.
You really didn't have to
put me up to this.
Just hold on to it,
and then let go at the last minute.
- The last minute?
- Maybe the last microsecond.
You ready? Here we go.
Let's give it a try. Three, two, one.
- [music warps]
- A little soon.
- A little soon.
- He told me to let go of it.
- Boring.
- [Mark] Boring.
- Come on!
- Boring.
- He said let go.
- Boring.
- I thought I was gonna lose my hand.
- Dave's turn?
- Here we go. You ready?
- Don't let it go too soon.
- Three, two, one.
- Yeah, not too soon.
There it goes. There it goes. Throw it.
[hip-hop music playing]
[all exclaiming]
That was nice. That was exciting.
They not only have flash paper,
but they have flash cotton.
[Mark] What?
So this regular cotton that they soaked
in sulfuric acid and nitric acid,
it has so much energy output
that they would actually use this
in place of gunpowder.
So what are we thinking?
Boring or exciting?
[chiming]
About three-quarters of the way there.
I'll take it.
All right, here we go. Three, two, one.
Whoo!
[slow-motion exclaiming]
[Science Bob] Now are you excited?
That was scary. That was scary and hot.
That was hot and scary.
That was hot and scary.
Xavier, do you wanna adjust that?
There it is.
All right, I wanna introduce you guys
to a little something
called the Ruben's tube.
I guess it was invented by…
[drumroll]
- Ruben.
- Ruben. Yeah, all right.
[contemplative music plays]
So we're gonna turn on our flammable gas.
That's gonna fill this pipe.
But if you notice, there's about 100 tiny
little holes drilled into the top of that.
[Mark] Ooh, it's like a fireplace.
- Oh, it's spreading.
- [Mark] Oh, there we go.
That looks like
the sand fluidization bed that you make.
[Mark] Oh!
Well, it's very interesting you say that,
because it actually can move in waves.
Watch what happens
when we send a tone in through a speaker
that is now connected to the gas jets.
[tone resonating]
Ooh.
- Now, if you look…
- [Mark] Whoa!
…you can actually see the waves of sound.
- So you see this pressure wave.
- That is so cool.
Then you might say, well, what if we send
a different sound through it?
- [tone resonating]
- [all exclaiming]
[Bija] That's like breaking a speaker.
Which makes you wonder,
can you send music through it?
- Waves change.
- Whoa.
[ambient music playing]
- You can feel the heat.
- Dude, the bass drum is sick.
That's actually cool.
I want this in my car.
[all laughing]
[dance music playing]
Whoa.
Whoa.
[rhythmic music playing]
- Whoa.
- [laughing]
That's quite amazing.
[music continues]
- [Mark] Nice.
- [Nathan] That is awesome.
That's a little bit of music,
but you might wonder,
can you actually see your voice in fire?
- I was wondering that.
- Epic.
Yes. So I do have a microphone.
Who would like to give it a try?
[suspenseful music rises, stops]
- [laughing]
- All right. Xavier, you're first one up.
- Ooh.
- Whoa!
- [Science Bob] Look, that's your voice!
- What the heck? That's amazing.
Aah.
- [Mark] Whoa!
- Oh yeah?
Is everyone havin' a good day?
[Mark] Whoa.
Oh, wow. I'm really angry.
[heavy metal music plays]
- [vocalizing]
- [Mark] Whoa.
[grunting] Ooh, ah.
Ooh, ah. Ooh, ah. Ooh, ah.
[laughing]
My name is Mark
And I'm here to say… ♪
- Is that a good rap?
- No.
- [Mark] No?
- Boop, boop, boop.
- [Mark grunting]
- Boop, boop, boop.
- [Mark grunting]
- Boop, boop, boop.
- Ooh, ah, ooh.
- Boop, boop, boop.
- Ooh, ah.
- [vocalizes]
- Boop.
- Angry.
You have a bo… bottle of water?
[all laughing]
All right,
I think it's time for a little party time.
Now, you might be wondering
why I'm wearing protective gear
for a harmless little balloon.
You guys, gear up.
This is, uh, kind of intense
for a birthday balloon.
Helium balloons are harmless.
But it turns out there's more
than just one gas
that will make a balloon rise.
And so we're gonna do a little comparison.
And we're gonna see
whether this is harmless helium
or maybe something like hydrogen,
which is what the sun is made out of.
- Mark, I'm gonna give this to you.
- Okay.
You're gonna bring it
to the side of the balloon.
- Got it.
- I am terrified.
- I don't know what's going on.
- What do you think is gonna happen?
- It'll pop?
- Yeah, I think it'll pop.
- Pop.
- Okay. Here we go.
[suspenseful music playing]
Whenever you're ready, Mark.
[shrieking]
[upbeat music playing]
- [shrieks]
- Oh!
So that was hydrogen.
That's what makes all of these stars burn.
But there's two balloons.
Oh, yeah.
This one is not filled with hydrogen.
That must be the helium.
This is actually filled
with a gas called methane,
which is also on extraterrestrial planets.
It's also gonna explode
in three, two, one.
- So not as big a boom, but a much bigger…
- [Xavier] Fire.
It was like a fire in midair.
Is that enough, guys,
or you still want more?
[crickets chirping]
- More!
- More!
This is filled with methane gas.
So this makes this
the world's most dangerous beach ball.
This really works best
if I have an opportunity
to set one of your hands on fire.
[suspenseful music plays]
- [Xavier and Bija] Me!
- Let's go for our adults here.
No, no, no, no, no. Me, me, me, me, me.
They wanna do it.
You realize he said
"set your hand on fire," right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Science Bob] Roll up your sleeve here.
I'm gonna have you put your hand
in there and just soak it.
And while you're doing that,
I am gonna bubble up some methane.
So now you can see the bubbles.
Now, methane, as we remember
from the balloon, was lighter than air.
We get this Marge Simpson effect, right?
Look at that. Isn't that cool?
We've trained for this. And we do it
so you don't have to at home.
Palm up. Here you go.
Put your hand right over here,
nice and stretched out. You ready?
- Yes.
- Let's light you on fire.
- Three, two, one.
- What?
- Wow!
- [Mark] Whoa!
- [Science Bob] Well?
- So satisfying.
What do you think?
- Great.
- Great.
- I felt the warmness in my hand.
- Did it get warm? Okay.
So what happened is the flame burned down.
It got to the water.
The water's like, don't worry,
I'll take the heat from you.
By the time it got to your hand,
the heat was gone.
- Bija, you wanna try?
- Yeah.
[Science Bob] Here we go. Three, two, one.
[hip-hop music playing]
Well, that was a lot of fire experiments,
so I think we're set?
[music stops]
- No, more.
- No! More!
More! More! More! More! More!
I'll see what I got at the shuttle.
All right. So those are cotton balls.
And then we're gonna
set the cotton on fire.
- Whoo.
- Nice. Mark, would you do me a favor?
- Yeah.
- This is on a spinner. Go and spin this.
- Oh.
- Fire-nado.
- Faster!
- Okay, faster. Here we go.
[all] Whoa!
This green around it is pushing the air.
It's forcing it into a fire tornado.
- Fire-nado.
- [Science Bob and Mark] Fire-nado.
What if you have a bigger trash can?
This one is a little bit bigger,
so it's gonna take me a bit of time.
- I got it in the trunk of my shuttle.
- Bob, I got this.
- [snaps fingers]
- Oh!
[Mark] There you go.
- [Science Bob] Let's get this going.
- [Mark] Ooh!
Now, the best thing about this
is I have it on the clapper.
- Oh.
- Watch this.
- Whoa.
- Wow.
- Nice.
- [Mark] Oh!
- [Science Bob] And then…
- You can feel it.
I can feel it!
Wow, let's all applause that.
What do you think? That's good.
Oh no! High-speed! Oh no!
[electric guitar music playing]
[music stops]
- Nice!
- Yeah!
All right, is that enough fire now?
- [Xavier and Mark] No!
- Nah.
- Oh my gosh. Okay, I have one more demo.
- One more? Okay.
So here's what we've got.
So that is called lycopodium powder.
If you were just to drop a match
in a container of lycopodium powder,
it wouldn't burn.
But if you surround it
with oxygen by aerating it,
then suddenly it becomes flammable.
We're gonna see if we can show that.
[all] Three, two, one.
[up-tempo music playing]
[all] Wow!
- You blew out the candle.
- That was the finale?
I do have a version of this
in which all of us can participate.
- Would you like that?
- [all] Yes.
[Science Bob] All right.
We now have five buckets.
And all of these buckets
have a nice, tight-fitting lid.
And then in each one
of the tubes behind the bucket,
we have our lycopodium powder.
You're gonna blow the lycopodium powder
into that. What's gonna happen?
- The lid's gonna go bye-bye.
- Through the roof.
[Science Bob] All right, here we go.
Lid number two.
Lid number three. Lid number four.
Lid number five.
Deep breath.
Blow!
["Ode to Joy" playing]
- Whoo!
- [laughing]
We did it!
- [Science Bob] There you go.
- That was amazing.
- You'll clean this up?
- Thank you. I got this.
- Nice to see you, guys!
- Okay.
Back to Planet Earth. Get in the rocket.
It is way past your bedtime.
We'll see you guys later. All right, guys.
Thank you so much for coming out.
It really was a pleasure having you.
- No problem. This was a ton of--
- [snaps fingers]
All right, now…
As a reminder, we've assigned you three
different Summer Super Challenges.
First, build a Rube Goldberg machine
that has water somewhere along the way.
We'll film a slo-mo video
featuring googly eyes.
And finally, film a reverse video
incorporating food in some way.
You can do one or all of them.
Just make sure you submit 'em
before August 8th.
All right, well, that's a wrap
from the beautiful planet of Venus.
Time for me to pack up my yard,
get on the rocket ship,
and then we'll see you
from a whole new planet next week,
right here at Space Camp CrunchLabs.
Can't let a good set
of googly eyes go to waste.
[closing theme music playing]
[music ends]