What do you do when you’re done building the world’s largest Nerf Gun? If you’re Mark Rober, you set your sights on the mother of all water guns.
Rober is a former NASA engineer who clearly likes to think big.
Not content to rest on his laurels when Guinness World Records recognized him as the creator of the biggest Nerf Gun on earth, he set his sights on a Super Soaker.
And this thing is a beast.
It shoots water at 272 mph. That’s eight times more powerful than a fire truck hose. It can break through glass, destroy large watermelons and slice through soda cans.
“It’s definitely something you don’t want to stick your hand in front of,” Rober told CNN.
“You can see in the video we dropped a hotdog in front of it and we weren’t putting it through slowly and it sliced it in half.”
Rober worked for seven years at NASA. His baby, the Curiosity rover, is now out exploring Mars.
Today, Rober is a YouTube personality known for his do-it-yourself gadgets. He made his Nerf gun using plunger heads and pool noodles.
To make the Super Soaker, he worked away at it for six months, he said. It’s seven-feet long, holds two gallons of water and uses nitrogen gas instead of air to get its power.
“It was another classic from my childhood. The Super Soaker was such a big deal when it first came out,” he said.
“Somehow it could shoot further and for longer than anything else out there and so I have memories of being the first kid on the block who brought one of these to a water fight. It was like showing up with a machine gun in World War I. I sorta of wanted to pay homage to it after the Nerf gun.”
The certificates recognizing both his creations as Guinness record holders are framed on his wall.
“My son and nieces and nephew think it’s really cool,” Rober said of his Super Soaker. “And I used it with family friends. It was me vs. all of them and it’s kind of an even fight … till I run out of water.”
And in case you’re wondering why a former NASA scientist would be using his talents making a beloved summer toy, a reminder: The original Super Soaker was also the handiwork of a an engineer there – Lonnie Johnson.