You can take a selfie with the Earth using this YouTuber’s satellite

The stunt escalation on YouTube may have reached new heights with Mark Rober’s offer to take someone’s selfie with planet Earth using a satellite he puts into orbit with the help of Google and T-Mobile.

If you tell Rober where you live, he claims he’ll take the selfie while the satellite is over your city, and he’ll tell you exactly when the photo will be taken so you can go outside and technically get twice in the shot. The satellite is expected to be launched by SpaceX in January 2025 (on board the Transporter 12 mission) and will start taking selfie photos a few months after that.

Yes, it’s a total gimmick, and while Rober and T-Mobile advertise the feature as “free,” I’m sorry to inform you that it comes with some strings attached. You’ll need to subscribe to CrunchLabs, which offers building kits for kids, to get the free code for the satellite selfie. (CrunchLab plans run between $25 and $80 per year, depending on the plan selected.) Existing T-Mobile subscribers can also get a free code through the T-Life app, and Google Pixel customers will also get codes offered.

Codes can be redeemed starting December 3 at spaceselfie.com. You will be prompted to upload your selfie, after which you will receive an email allowing you to track when your selfie is taken.

Rober has an entire YouTube video explaining how the selfie satellite works. There are actually two cameras and two Google Pixel phones mounted on either side of the satellite for redundancy, and the whole thing is powered by an extensive solar panel, which sends energy to a 120Wh battery pack.

This actually creates a unique problem for the satellite, which must contend with at least three different ways to collect solar energy, take selfies, and send and receive photos – without propellers or thrusters to change position. To solve this, Rober’s team installed a flywheel in the satellite so that it could change position depending on the action it performed. Pretty smart.