Camp CrunchLabs (2026) s01e03 Episode Script

[Mark] This is a three-part laser maze
that's basically a training course
to become
the world's greatest secret agent.
I'm doing a fancy move. [grunts]
- Oh no.
- [laughing]
I tried to do a cool move,
and it didn't pay off.
This is easy.
[Mark] Oh no.
Welcome back to Space Camp CrunchLabs.
I'm Mark Rober,
and this is week three
of your least boring summer ever in space.
[theme music playing]
Hey ♪
[vocalizing]
Hey ♪
[music ends]
You should be working
on your at-home Super Challenges,
but if you need some ideas,
here's some submissions
we've received over the last few years
for some inspiration.
[jaunty music playing]
- Whoo!
- Can you get me a Reese's?
Thank you.
[cheering]
Mmm.
Now, we saw some
of your Super Challenges earlier.
But don't forget,
that's not just for bragging rights.
Every qualifying Super Challenge submitted
has a completely equal chance
to win the ultimate CrunchLabs experience
known as the Platinum Ticket.
This means you'll come right out here
to CrunchLabs,
where you'll hang out with me
and the whole CrunchLabs team.
- I'm scared.
- [Mark laughs]
[Mark] We'll do a bunch
of fun experiments.
We'll eat way too much pizza.
- And of course…
- [Nerf gun clicks]
…we'll go all out
in an epic CrunchLabs Nerf battle.
Now, of course, this year,
it's not just Camp CrunchLabs.
It's Space Camp CrunchLabs.
And that means each week,
I pack up my backyard
to visit a new planet in the solar system
and share some juicy nuggets
of celestial information.
The best part about doing camp in space?
No mosquitoes.
So the question is,
where are we this week?
If you check out over my shoulder,
you'll see a planet.
It's red, rocky, and home to one
of my personal old robot friends.
That's right. We are orbiting
my second-favorite planet, Mars.
Or more specifically, we're technically
on one of Mars's moons named Phobos.
Now, as you guys know,
I worked at NASA for a decade.
In fact, my name is Mark Rober,
which is just two letters off
from Mars Rover.
On top of that, I spent seven
of those ten years at NASA
working on the Mars Curiosity rover.
So I've designed and integrated
and tested hardware
that's rolling around
that little red dot in the sky
90 million miles away.
And even more cooler than that,
humans are going Mars.
We will step foot on that planet.
And the person
who will do it is alive today.
And it could even be you
watching right now,
which is just so awesome,
and I'm so glad you're here.
All right, well, let's get right
to our special guests this week
by snappin' 'em in.
[snaps fingers]
Whoa. Mark?
My buddy Max from Toys and Colors.
- Welcome…
- Hey.
- …to Mars.
- Mars?
Technically, this is Phobos,
a moon of Mars.
Mars is up there.
What is your favorite planet, by the way?
Um, Pluto.
- Pluto?
- Yeah.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news,
but, um, it's no longer a planet.
All right, let's head over
to our picnic table of endless wonders.
- Whoa.
- The first thing we need is some campers.
According to my space log,
we had some stowaways on the rocket ship.
Campers?
- Hey, Mark.
- Hey, Mark.
Were you guys hiding
in the secret compartment?
- Yeah.
- I guess you're here now.
So get the heck down here.
- Hi.
- [Mark] Welcome to Mars.
- Up top.
- [Max] Yeah.
Can you guys guess what we're doing here?
- Hmm…
- Uh-uh.
I was hoping you'd say that.
Dim the lights.
- [whirring]
- Oh.
- There we go.
- [Mark] Now I do this.
[all] Whoa.
I can see it.
[Mark] Lasers!
- Ooh, I might have too much.
- Whoa.
What's the number one rule
when working with lasers?
- Where do you not shine them?
- In your eyes.
That's right. We are trained professionals
here at CrunchLabs.
Be super, super careful with lasers.
All right.
What if I told you guys
I know that the moon is exactly
228,621 miles from Earth right now?
[silence]
- Would you be impressed?
- Yes.
Thank you.
[laughing]
But it shouldn't be that impressive,
because I just looked it up on Wikipedia.
But the more impressive part
is how we know that.
Could you take a guess how we know that,
literally to the nearest centimeter?
Here's a hint.
[Max] Lasers.
- [Mark] Yes.
- [laughing]
So when the Apollo astronauts
placed a mirror on the moon,
it was a special kind of mirror.
- Who wants to help me with this?
- [both] Me.
Okay. Come over here.
You raised your hand first.
See the laser?
It's bouncing off this mirror.
[girl] Uh-huh.
I want you to try
and get it in that red box.
- Line it up. Okay.
- [girl] Like that?
That was actually pretty good.
That's very impressive.
So this represents the moon,
and that represents Earth.
You were able to line it up and do that.
But the moon
is really, really, really far away.
228,621 miles, to be specific.
So it's really hard
that far away to line it up.
So you wanna know a trick?
I would just take this right here.
I'm not even gonna look,
and see if I can hit it in that square.
Ready? You think I can get it
to bounce in that red square?
[girl] Uh… Oh.
Did I do it?
- [boy] Yes.
- [Max] Yeah.
Okay. Now I'm just gonna do it again,
not even looking.
- Did I do it?
- [boy] Yes.
- [Max] There.
- You wanna know the trick?
- What?
- This is called a retroreflector.
We have three mirrors
that come at a point.
What do you see when you look in there,
no matter which way I turn it?
- My face.
- Exactly, your eyes, right?
So as long as you hit that mirror,
it'll come right back.
And the important part, then,
is you time how long it takes.
Because we know how fast
the speed of light is.
So if it takes two seconds to come back,
we can measure exactly
how far away the moon is at any point
by using lasers shining at the moon.
- [Max] Super cool.
- Have you seen these before?
- [Max] My bike, my car…
- Yeah, do you know the purpose of those?
- To shine the light back?
- [Mark] Yeah, look.
[all] Whoa.
There's little, tiny retroreflectors,
mirrors like this, on here.
So no matter which angle it's at,
the headlights from the car,
they'll always light up
so the driver sees you.
All right, these are all well and good,
but they're a little bit small.
I feel like we could go bigger.
And if we're really gonna go bigger,
we can't do it here.
Now, brace yourself.
Technically, we're still on Phobos,
just a different part of the moon.
And although we do have a cool floor,
the one thing we're missing is a referee.
[snaps fingers]
- Oh, hey, guys.
- Science Bob Pflugfelder.
Uh, what are you guys doing
in the middle of a laser maze?
- What?
- What?
- What?
- What laser maze?
- This laser maze.
- [gasps]
- [all] Whoa!
- [Science Bob] Ah, yeah.
[boy laughing]
- [Science Bob] Yeah.
- [kids exclaiming]
So cool.
Bob, these aren't dangerous, right?
- What do you think?
- Uh…
[contemplative music playing]
- [grunts]
- These are not dangerous.
I feel like I should've asked that first.
[chuckles] All right, guys.
I know it looks like a lot of fun…
- [playful music playing]
- [grunting]
…but this is actually a competition.
- [music warps]
- I'm scared about this.
[Science Bob] In round one,
each team must make their way
from the start square to the far side
of the course as quickly as they can.
But they have to avoid
touching the lasers.
For every laser beam they touch,
there's a penalty.
Once they reach the far side,
they must both press
the yellow reset buttons,
reactivating any tripped lasers.
They then need
to navigate back to the start.
The lowest score wins.
- We're gonna need some teams.
- Kids versus adults!
- Kids versus adults!
- What?
You don't wanna be on Mark Rober's team?
- No!
- [Mark] Oh! All right, fine.
- Max, let's go.
- Let's go.
All right, here we go. Uncles up first.
Ready in three, two, one, go.
- Let's go, Max.
- [Science Bob] Don't hit the beams.
- Here we go.
- All right.
Oh, this is too easy.
[suspenseful music playing]
- [beeping]
- [Mark] Oh no, Max!
- Was that me?
- It must've been you.
[Max] Wait, I don't see it near me.
- [beeping]
- Oh, Max!
[kids laughing]
- [beeping]
- Oh no! Oh, I'm hearing a lot of beeping.
- That is you.
- [Mark] It may have been me. Oh!
Okay, Max, I'm doing a fancy move.
[drumroll]
- [laughing]
- [Science Bob] Keep going.
- Hand on the pedestal.
- [Mark] Okay.
- [chiming]
- Now come back.
[Science Bob] The beams are back.
- Okay, we can go over.
- [grunts]
- [laughing]
- No laughing.
Oh…
- Another beam broken.
- [Mark] This is a problem.
[Science Bob] That's a penalty.
- Oh, another penalty.
- Oh no.
You gotta hand over here.
Put your hand on the pedestal.
- Okay, there's one. There's the other.
- [laughing]
[Mark] Hey, 597.
[Science Bob] 597.7.
That's your score to beat.
All right. Kids are up.
[boy] Okay.
[Science Bob] On your mark, get set, go!
- Don't break any beams.
- [Mark] They're good.
Oh, wow, they're very good.
[suspenseful music playing]
- [beeping]
- Oh, the hair.
Watch your hair.
[Science Bob] All right.
Watch out. Oh, there's another penalty.
Was that me?
[Mark] Oh, wow, nice moves.
Whoa, your hair. Hold your hair.
Wait, why am I giving tips?
Yeah, why are you giving tips?
Come on, Max.
[Science Bob] Hands on the pedestal.
There's one hand. There's the other hand.
All right, it's reset. Come on back.
Why is their score
so much lower than ours?
- What?
- [Science Bob] You're doing great.
- [beeping]
- [Mark] Oh no.
- [Max] Take your time.
- I can't take my time.
Take your time.
Hurry up, we got one.
All right, and there it is.
- End of game. [chuckles]
- [Mark] Oh no! Wow!
- [Andrea] Yes!
- Andrea!
[laughing] Wait!
[all laughing]
You guys are way better at laser mazes
than high five. I'll say that much.
You guys ready for game two?
- Yes!
- Here are the rules.
In round two, contestants have 40 seconds
to try to break as many laser beams
as possible.
When both contestants hit
the yellow reset light at the same time,
the lasers reset, and the game continues
until time runs out.
The highest score wins.
All right. Kids are up first.
On your mark, get set, go!
Break the beams.
- [Max] There we go. There we go.
- [laughing]
- All right, got a hand.
- Put your hand down!
- Same time! Same time!
- [Science Bob] Both of you, same time!
- There! Go!
- Go!
- [laughing]
- Break them all!
- Okay, there you go. Now run back.
- [kids exclaiming]
- [Mark] Go!
- [Science Bob] There it goes!
[all laughing]
- Go back!
- [chiming]
You got one second left!
Okay, time's up. Time's up.
[Mark exclaiming]
- 234. 234.
- 234.
[Mark] All right.
On your mark, get set, bust the beams!
- [Mark babbles]
- [Science Bob] There they go. Very fast.
There they go. Touch.
Good coordination. Break them all.
Oh no, they're winning.
- [waltz music playing]
- [Mark grunting]
- [laughing]
- [chiming]
[Mark shouting]
- Ten seconds left!
- Aw…
- [Science Bob] They're doing really good.
- This is fun!
[slow-motion shouting]
- Whoo!
- [all] Whoa!
[slow-motion shouting]
- Oh!
- [boy] No!
- Time's up!
- [Mark] Oh!
- Good game.
- They got 530?
- [Science Bob] Score of 530.
- [boy] Ah!
- [Mark] Adults rule!
- [Max] We did it.
- What's up?
- This means we have a tiebreaker.
Okay, so this will establish once
and for all who's better, adults or kids.
There's a lot of pressure
riding on your guys' shoulders.
[Science Bob] So here's how
this game works.
In round three, the game starts easy
with the fewest number of lasers.
Contestants must avoid the lasers
to try to get to the reset button.
When they do, more lasers are added.
Hitting a laser results in a time penalty.
Contestants have 90 seconds,
and the highest score wins.
Uncles are up first.
Good luck. On your mark, get set, go!
- Too easy.
- Watch the beams. Watch the beams.
[Mark] Got it. Okay.
[exhales] This is gonna be a high stretch.
- [grunts] Okay.
- [Max chuckles]
- More beams.
- Whoa! By my face.
[Science Bob] Come on back.
- Whoa.
- Come on. Come on to me.
[Mark] Okay, okay.
- [Science Bob] You broke a beam.
- Oh no, I didn't see one.
[Science Bob] All right, now go back.
- [beeping]
- [Mark] Oh no.
- [panting] Get this one.
- This is the easy level, guys.
- They're not doing great.
- [Mark] Oh no!
[kids laughing]
[Science Bob] You have 25 seconds left.
All right, more beams.
- [boy] Oh!
- [Mark] Oh, wow! Right between my legs.
- [Science Bob] Watch it.
- [Max] Oh yeah.
- [Mark exclaims] Oh no!
- [Science Bob] Penalty.
I was trying to do a cool move,
but it didn't pay off.
- This is easy.
- Fourteen seconds left. Oh, penalty.
All right, game over.
- 1,697.
- [Mark] Oh no.
I don't know if you guys
would make good secret agents.
All right. Kids are up.
This is the deciding round.
- On your mark, get set, go!
- [signal beeps]
All right, there they go.
Stepping, stepping. Wow, they are fast.
- [Mark] Wow, that was too fast.
- [Science Bob] You got more beams.
- [boy] Oh!
- There you go.
[boy] Almost got me there.
- Watch 'em.
- [chiming]
Step over. Good job. Good job.
[slowed] Good job.
[whoosh]
- [beeping]
- [Mark] Oh.
- Come on back.
- [Max] Graceful.
- That was not a secret agent move.
- [Science Bob] Twenty-four seconds left.
[Mark] Wow, these kids are good.
- [Andrea grunts]
- [Mark] Wow.
- You're getting tired.
- Yeah, I think they're tired out.
[Andrea] Not me.
Yes!
- [Mark] Oh, wow!
- [laughing]
- That was a disaster.
- [Science Bob] Wow.
All right, and end of game.
- [Mark] Oh!
- [Andrea] Yes!
[Science Bob] Let's look at the score.
- Yes!
- High five! High five!
[Mark groans]
Yes! Yes!
What the heck?
All right, guys,
the kids kind of dominated that.
You guys are the winners
of the last game,
which means that you guys
are the ultimate winners
of the CrunchLabs Laser Games.
- Yay, for real.
- Wow.
You guys are ready
to go into government spy work.
- Okay, yay!
- Huh?
[laughing]
Man, I am 0 for 2
at Space Camp CrunchLabs competitions.
This is not a good start
for me this summer, Bob.
You know what else isn't good?
You guys are up way past your bedtime.
Get the heck out of here, campers.
Back on the rocket ship. Go.
- Whee!
- Don't break the beams!
[Science Bob] Uh…
Fine, break the beams.
Max, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Bob, I would appreciate
better officiating result next time.
- I accept cash.
- [laughing]
- Good to know.
- [whimsical music playing]
Well, that was eventful.
And who knew Mars was hiding
such an incredible laser maze
on its biggest moon?
Back to base camp we go.
All right, well, that was a lot of fun.
So while I am packing up my backyard
and heading to the next planet,
you might have some guesses
which one it might be,
you should be working
on your at-home Super Challenge.
These 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.
And as a reminder,
you can do one or all of them.
Just make sure you submit 'em
before August 8th.
First, build a Rube Goldberg machine
that has water somewhere along the way
or film a slo-mo video
featuring googly eyes.
And finally, film a reverse video
incorporating food in some way.
Now, remember, this needs to be uploaded
to CampCrunchLabs.com.
All right, well, the temperature's about
to drop 250 degrees here at sunset,
but we'll see you next time
on a brand-new planet
right here at Space Camp CrunchLabs.
All right, time to pack things up.
Start by blowing out this fire.
[sighs] Worked a lot better last year.
[closing theme music playing]
[music ends]