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Scott Manley

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Scott Manley
File:Scott Manley in studio.jpg
Scott Manley in May 2021
Personal information
Born (1972-12-31) 31 December 1972 (age 51)
Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland
NationalityScottish, American
EducationUniversity of Glasgow
OccupationSoftware developer at Apple Inc.
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2009–present
Subscribers1.47 million[1]
Total views492.9 million[1]
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: 12 August 2022

Scott Park Manley[2] (born 31 December 1972) is a Scottish-American YouTube personality, gamer, programmer, astrophysicist and DJ.[3] On his YouTube channel, he makes videos discussing space-related topics and news, mainly concerning up-to-date rocket science developments.[4] He also plays space-themed video games, usually Kerbal Space Program,[5] while he explains much of the science involved. He uses his scientific background to help teach science while playing games.[6][7]

He is known among his followers as the "astronogamer", as he is one of the few YouTubers blending both video games and science,[8] and is popular in the niche community of space enthusiasts and gamers, especially the Kerbal Space Program community.[9]

Education and professional career

While studying at the University of Glasgow, Manley received a Bachelor of Science (1990–1994) in physics and astronomy, and a Master of Science (1994–1995) in computational physics a year later. In 2002, he worked as an engineer for Napster. From 2002 to 2004, he worked as a research engineer for Qualys. From 2004 to 2009, he worked as a security architect in imeem, where he developed and maintained an audio and video uploading, transcoding, and fingerprinting system, among other things. Manley's current employment is at Apple Inc. He joined Topsy Labs in 2009 and in 2013. Topsy was acquired by Apple.[3]

YouTube career

Manley's first few uploads on his YouTube channel, "szyzyg",[10] were assorted home movies, mainly of his daughter, Skye.

A video titled "Asteroid Discovery From 1980 - 2010" was one of Manley's early YouTube successes. The video is a computer animation showing a timelapse of the Solar System from 1980-2010. When the timelapse reaches the day an asteroid is discovered, it appears on the map as a bright green dot and continues orbiting the sun. The video quickly amassed over 459,000 views in the five days following its upload.[11] By September 3, 2010, the szyzyg channel had 213 subscribers, earning Manley the accolade "#66 - Most Viewed (This Week)".[10]

Manley during a 2017 Kerbal Space Program livestream.

Some time before November 23, 2011, he changed the name of his YouTube channel to "Scott Manley".[12] Scott's later successes came from gaming content, specifically videos about Kerbal Space Program, a spaceflight simulator with accurate Newtonian physics. Kerbal Space Program is a sandbox game featuring players constructing rockets out of prefabricated parts, attempting to launch them into orbit and explore the solar system of Kerbin. The game has a very steep learning curve due to the accurate Newtonian physics engine. Scott used his scientific background to make tutorial videos on basic gameplay, such as how to reach Kerbin orbit.[13] Later, Manley would go on to play other games such as Elite Dangerous, EVE Online, and Surviving Mars, approaching them from his unique professional science perspective.

Around 2018, Manley slowly transitioned away from gaming content, and began focusing heavily on the history of spaceflight and current events in the industry. As of 2022, these are his main posts, alongside regular Q&A videos submitted by his patrons on Patreon. Manley still streams games weekly on Twitch under the name "Szyzyg".[14]

Author Anne McCaffrey consulted with Manley on the effects of asteroid impacts while writing The Skies of Pern,[15] determining the orbit of a fictional rogue comet and providing advice on how the event should be portrayed.[16] Manley was one of the original participants of Asteroid Day, was a keynote speaker at the launch in 2015,[17] and hosted their regular "Asteroid Update" segments.[18] He is credited as a consultant on the Netflix movie Stowaway, directed by Joe Penna. In Penna's appearance on Corridor Cast, he said Manley would go beyond the immediate needs of the script and 'did the math so it would be ready'.[19]

Asteroid named after Scott Manley

In recognition for his work as a popular science communicator, asteroid 33434 Scottmanley was named after him.[20] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 18 May 2019 (M.P.C. 114954).[21] The outer main-belt asteroid was discovered by astronomers with the OCA–DLR Asteroid Survey in 1999. It is a member of the stony Koronis family and measures approximately 4.6 kilometers in diameter.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b "About Scott Manley". YouTube.
  2. ^ Flying in a Zero Gravity Aircraft - Why The Pilots 'Follow the Duck' on YouTube
  3. ^ a b "Scott Manley | LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  4. ^ "Scott Manley". B612. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  5. ^ Martindale, Jon (22 January 2014). "Meet the Man(ley) that taught the world how to Kerbalise space". KitGuru. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  6. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (26 August 2016). "'Astronogamer': When Space Science Meets Gaming". Seeker. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  7. ^ Dillon, Conor (24 October 2018). "China's artificial moon — The numbers 'just don't add up'". DW.COM. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  8. ^ Mejia, Ozzie (1 February 2016). "Shacknews Close-Up: Scott Manley, the Astronogamer". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  9. ^ Boone, Jeb (1 August 2013). "A far cry from Call of Duty, Kerbal Space Program is inspiring players to learn physics (VIDEO)". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  10. ^ a b "YouTube - szyzyg's Channel". YouTube. 3 September 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  11. ^ "YouTube - Asteroid Discovery From 1980 - 2010". YouTube. 31 August 2010. Archived from the original on 31 August 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  12. ^ "szyzyg's Channel - YouTube". YouTube. 23 November 2011. Archived from the original on 23 November 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Easy Guide to Orbiting a Rocket In Kerbal Space Program - YouTube". YouTube. 5 September 2011. Archived from the original on 5 September 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Szyzyg on Twitch". Twitch. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  15. ^ "Anne McCaffrey on THE PHYSICS OF PERN". RandomHouse.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  16. ^ Scott Manley (1 February 2015). "Found some old graphics I sent to Anne McCaffrey when I was figuring out the comet impact for Skies Of Pern". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  17. ^ "Asteroids In Video Games". B612. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Asteroid Day Update – Featuring Scott Manley". Asteroidday.org. 29 May 2018. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  19. ^ Corridor Cast (13 February 2019), EP#14 | Joe Penna aka MysteryGuitarMan, archived from the original on 8 August 2019, retrieved 22 July 2019
  20. ^ "33434 Scottmanley (1999 FU)". Minor Planet Center. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  21. ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  22. ^ "Asteroid 33434 Scottmanley". Small Bodies Data Ferret. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
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