Built with its own vomit pocket for shifting gravity fields
When Soviet astronaut Gherman Titov blasted off in Vostok II in 1961, he became the first person to throw up in space. Space sickness, or space adaptation syndrome (SAS), is what happens when the body’s vestibular system – which helps maintain balance on the ground – is thrown into disarray as it encounters a lack of gravity for the first time. And that’s why our Mars Jacket comes with a vomit pocket built in.
Ballistic nylon
Space makes life on Earth look easy. Temperatures range from hundreds of degrees below freezing, to hundreds of degrees above – especially if a spacecraft gets too close to The Sun. Each planet comes with a different atmosphere and gravity level. And even the stuff space is made of will attack you. You also weigh less on the Moon and Mars, so you’ll inevitably end up lugging more gear. To build the outer shell of the Mars Jacket and Pants we use a material used to protect soldiers from flying debris and shrapnel caused by bullet and artillery shell impact.
Mars is a world waiting to come to life again
4 billion years ago rivers ran on Mars. The red planet was once blue. In Mars’s northern hemisphere a vast sea covered a fifth of the Martian surface. And with temperatures of around 25 degrees, all you’d have needed to walk around was an oxygen mask. Below the surface, the red planet still has vest reservoirs of frozen water today. It also has the minerals you need to support civilization – from iron and nitrogen, to oxygen and carbon. It’s a world waiting to come to life.
Designing for deep sleep in deep space
However advanced we become, the human body needs rest and sleep in order to function at a high level. And this will become even more critical as we travel into deep space. But when you’re trapped in an environment you can’t control – like a multi-billion-dollar sardine can heading to Mars – sleep is going to get difficult. Designed for physical and psychological comfort in inhospitable places, the Deep Sleep Cocoon is a self-contained microhabitat that’s mimics adaptive, protective structures including the exoskeleton of woodlice and cocoons spun by moths and caterpillars.
At some point we have to leave Earth anyway
Over the next 500 million years the Sun will make biological life on Earth impossible. As its size and luminosity increase as it ages, our oceans will evaporate and surface temperatures will become unbearable. “Our only chance of long-term survival,” as Professor Stephen Hawking reminded us, “is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to reach out into space. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe.”
