Galway native, Brian McManus, has become the first Irish person to receive a Space Pioneer Award from the US National Space Society (NSS ), at the organisation’s International Space Development conference which took place in Los Angeles, California last week.
Named as the recipient of the 2024 Space Pioneer Award in the category of ‘Electronic Mass Media’, for his ‘hugely popular and accurate YouTube shows; Real Engineering and Real Science’, McManus joins a high profile list of former winners. Now in its 42nd year, the list of former Space Pioneer Award recipients include, business owner and space enthusiast, Elon Musk, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, Robert Bigelow, and even the Mars Exploration Rover.
Background
Many will recognise McManus as being the longtime host and creator of the ‘most popular engineering show on YouTube’ titled ‘Real Engineering’, which covers ‘extreme engineering needed for space launches, exploration and settlement’, as well as a variety of other earth focused topics. A former student of The Bish, McManus’s love of science and engineering led him to do a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering from University of Galway (then NUIG ), and a Master’s of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Limerick.
Now living in Texas, McManus went on to establish his own production company, Junto Media which produces the ‘Real Engineering’ videos here in Ireland, and is the CEO of Throttle Media, in addition to being the co-owner and co-founder of Nebula, the ‘largest creator-owned streaming service in history’, with fellow science educator and previous Space Pioneer Award winner, Issac Arthur.
“It was really nice to get recognition and to win the award, especially since YouTube gets overlooked a lot for the education content it provides,” explained McManus.
“The first video I ever uploaded was a mission statement driven by a desire to inspire the next generation of engineering, and it was fuelled by the fact that no one was talking about engineering in a way that I wanted to be spoken to while I was studying engineering.”
Education
This mission statement would prove to come true. With 4.4 million subscribers to the Real Engineering YouTube channel, McManus’s videos draw upwards of 5 million views, some even above 10 million views.
Following the win, McManus posted a picture of his newly minted award with a caption ‘Not bad for a man from a country without a space programme’, joking that it was dedicated to the ‘teachers who told me I would achieve nothing’. In reality, McManus was full of praise for his teachers at The Bish, describing himself as being a ‘difficult kid’ who was only ‘interested in the things I was interested in’, an experience that has played a part in his drive to provide an educational outlet for children, who like him, have interests which are not commonly taught in Irish secondary schools.
With comments sections on his personal social media accounts and the Real Engineering channel’s videos littered with messages of thanks from viewers who, driven by McManus’s enthusiasm and knowledge of engineering, have either returned to education, or are pursuing an education in engineering.
When asked what advice he would give to someone who, like he was, are interested in niche topics or learning more about engineering as a whole, McManus replies with encouragement, explaining that the internet is a treasure trove for knowledge, most of which is available to those who seek it.
“I usually say to people that if you are interested in learning about something, learn about it. There is enough information available online. When I started out making videos and learning about certain topics, I just started out by googling things and asking questions.
“If you want to learn about something you should just do it.”
