Built with the same advanced aerogel and parachutes that land Rovers on Mars.
Inside this jacket is a completely new type of aerogel built by the same team building the new aerogel heat shield for the next Mars Rover. And protecting the inside is an outer shell built with the only fabric currently on Earth, Mars and Titan – an extreme strength parachute used to land the first probe on Titan and the last Rover on Mars.
Tested down to -20°C
We tested the jacket the same way we test our largest puffer jackets, by taking it into the lab and exposing it to the extreme cold. A lucky volunteer gets to put on the jacket and take a seat in our controlled climate chamber before we turn the temperature dial right down. We’re generous and let them wear things like gloves too. Even with the test subject sitting completely still at -20°C, the jacket kept their core temperature stable for 20 minutes. It’s incredible performance from a jacket so thin.
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.
embracing the challenges of Titan forces us to push the technological boundaries of extreme cold weather clothing.
The outside of the Titan Pants was designed to survive in warzones
The outside of the Titan Pants is made from an ultralight and high-strength material developed for the British Special Forces in Afghanistan. In remote terrain every ounce of extra weight counts against you. So the material we use is not only built to be incredibly strong and incredibly light, but work out in the field. Waterproof, triple-layered, and made from a high-tenacity nylon, it’s weather resistant, and built to cope with rapid temperature changes without getting damaged.
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.
The Deep Sleep Cocoon is based on the exoskeleton of a woodlouse
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 mimics adaptive and protective structures in nature, 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.”
