--- title: A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest Nerf Gun description: Mark Rober built the world's largest functional nerf gun, which can fire darts at speeds of 40 mph that go up to 400 feet. canonical: https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-22T20:52:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:40.253Z og:title: A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest NERF Gun og:description: It can fire darts at 40 mph that go up to 400 feet. og:url: https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest NERF Gun twitter:description: It can fire darts at 40 mph that go up to 400 feet. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest NERF Gun > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=76185727-c82b-4282-b7da-88ce70bb7185&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 22, 2016 8:52 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 22, 2016 8:52 PM UTC Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer who now works at a tech company, didn’t want to be on the losing end of any NERF dart wars at work. So he decide to do something about it. “In an effort to keep people from picking on me, I decided to create the world’s largest functional NERF gun,” he explains in his YouTube video. The ensuing device is about as long as Rober is tall, with darts concocted of foam pool noodles and plunger heads. But the gun isn’t all for show: the thing really does work. And it’s powerful, with the ability to shoot darts at around 40 mph. Rober’s collaborators, two fellow engineers and YouTubers called [the PyroGeeks](https://www.youtube.com/user/PyroGeeks/about), explain that the power source for the gun is a paintball air tank that can power up to 20 shots. It’s a big step up, but the record for most foam-powered weapon still goes to [this Nerf Rival Khaos](http://time.com/4227090/nerf-gun-68-miles-per-hour/?iid=sr-link1), which fires at 68 mph — and is, unfortunately, a toy that you can actually buy for a child. But it looks like Rober’s work problem is solved. No one’s going to bother a guy with a NERF gun this giant, unless they want to get hit with a toilet plunger. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/"},"headline":"A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest NERF Gun","datePublished":"2016-06-22T20:52:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:40.253Z","description":"Kids, don't try this at home","url":"https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4378860/nasa-engineer-nerf-gun/","name":"A Former NASA Engineer Built the World's Biggest NERF Gun"}}]}] ```