Tag Archives: space

Finally tear-resistant, ballistic nylon clothes designed to use for the SpaceX journey to Mars!

Posted on by

There are few clothing brands that really match the design and innovation in fashion that Vollebak has managed in the last six odd years. The British clothing brand has previously left us in awe with a jacket fashioned to improve the sleep cycle of astronauts, and it is now tapping into the extraterrestrial void with the all-new Mars gear.

Combining the aspects it loves: Vollebak has designed Mars Jacket and Pants for the voyage to the red planet. It is fashioned with the unrelenting adoration for space exploration and crazy material science to solve a problem that is coming in the next few years. So, as the human race prepares itself to colonize Mars, Vollebak has clothing ready for engineers, architects, scientists and explorers who will be heading into space when the time is right. Until then, the jacket and pants are just apt for your next clubbing night back on Earth.

Vollebak, co-founded by twins Nick and Steve Tidball, has been creating clothes for the future and this intergalactic set of jackets and pants is only an extension of that intent. The gear is made from a tear-resistant, ballistic nylon outer shell but it’s absolutely soft and snug and is provided in two: gray and cream colors. Since the clothing is designed to venture to the next planet, it includes anti-gravity pockets to counter the shifting gravitational fields. Realizing that earthlings may experience nausea in their interplanetary voyage, the Mars gear is equipped with a 3D-printed vomit pocket on the chest, which features a removable and cleanable orange PVC vomit bag, should you need it.

Envisioned to facilitate the wearer when they are space-bound for the Moon or Mars eventually, the suit is almost fashionable for Earth-bound adventures too. If you think so, Vollebak Mars gear is available in six sizes from XS to XXL on the company’s website for $995.

Designer: Vollebak

Click Here to Buy Now!

The post Finally tear-resistant, ballistic nylon clothes designed to use for the SpaceX journey to Mars! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Space Architecture designed to make Elon Musk’s dreams of living in space a reality!

Posted on by

Outer space has always fascinated me, and there are many who believe that if things keep running the way they are on Earth, future generations might end up calling it home! The Moon and Mars are some of the alternate living options that are being taken into consideration, and as we send out spaceships to see how habitable these options really are, designers have been busy with dreaming up space homes, habitats, and even hotels that could function as viable living setups. We’ve curated some of the most creative, innovative, and plausible Space-friendly Architecture designs for you! From the world’s first space hotel which will come to life in 2027 to a collection of architectural renders that explore a possible move to space through three elaborate acts – Elon Musk would definitely approve of these space habitats!

This collection explores the possible future move for mankind and probably what Musk has in mind through three elaborate acts Act one: The Journey includes the meeting, the bedroom, and the dining room. It represents our trip and the hope to arrive, but also the attachments of our mundane life, carrying memories of a previous reality. Act two: The settlements show the Universe Edge, Summer House, and Landing Zone. It expresses our freedom to dream and imagine how our intergalactic holiday homes would look like. Act three: The Encounter, is based on human emotions of loving someone, missing someone, and being guided. It is all about looking inward and looking from inside, the vestiges of our presence in an inhabited and quiet place.

The California-based startup, Orbital Assembly Corporation, has designed a hotel that uses artificial gravity to keep humans grounded in the world’s first space hotel! Speaking of luxury and earthly comforts, the hotel boasts a capacity of 400 people along with amenities like a cinema, a health spa, gyms, themed restaurants, libraries, and even concert venues. I personally expect a slew of space puns and cinema filled with space-themed movies to make the experience more ironic and even surreal. The hotel has 24 modules allocated for habitation, each module measuring 12 meters in diameter and 20 meters long. The total habitable surface is 500 square meters and is spread over three floors, of which 12 modules will be dedicated to hotel rooms and suites. There shall be 3 room types – 126 square meters of a luxury suite, 62 square meters of luxury rooms, and 30 square meters in a standard room.

When NASA announced a competition to design the best Martian habitation design, AI SpaceFactory came in second place with its vertical, egg-shaped structure that holds a double shell system to handle the internal atmospheric pressure and the structural stress the design may have to endure. Designed to be constructed on Mars, the design keeps in mind using elements already present on the planet, reducing the dependency of construction materials to be carried from Earth. The team developed an innovative mixture of basalt fiber, extracted from Martian rock, and renewable bioplastic (polylactic acid) derived from plants that would be grown on Mars. The design envisions individual structures instead of a communal habitat but given the area it covers, it should comfortably house more than one Martian at a time!

Architect firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill created a concept for a permanent community on the Moon! The proposal consists of inflating pods that expand to make place for more and more citizens, as the population increases. They plan for the Moon Village to be “the first permanent human settlement on the lunar surface”. The Moon Village is being designed to not only sustain human life but to also encounter and solve any uninhabitable problems that the Moon may impose. This inflatable lunar settlement certainly has piqued our interest!

Warith Zaki and Amir Amzar plan to use the bamboo grown on Mars to actually build the first colony, named Seed of Life, on Mars. The conceptual colony design is actually a series or cluster of structures woven by autonomous robots from bamboos. The aim of the project is to create structures that do not rely on construction materials being shipped from Earth or to use 3D printing. “After doing a lot of research on Mars colonization, we realized that half of the ideas would go about deploying fully synthetic materials made on earth to build shelters, while the other half is about using the locally available regolith,” said Zaki and Amzar. “Human civilization has yet to build anything on any other planet outside of Earth. That fact alone opens up infinite possibilities of what could or should be used. Sure, 3D printing seems to be a viable proposition, but with thousands of years worth of experience and techniques in shelter construction, why shouldn’t we tap on other alternatives too?”

Titled the Mars X House, its design is optimized for the pressure requirements of Mars and comes made with an inner layer of HDPE, followed by an outer covering of concrete and basalt fiber, which is finally reinforced on the outside with vertically spiraling ridges. The house is split into three zones, with their own dedicated emergency exits (the outer spiral staircase), and right at the top is a water reservoir that applies downward pressure on the building, which when combined with the building’s shape, prevents it from exploding due to the pressure imbalance from the inside to the outside.

While Mars missions are getting all the media and sci-fi attention, a trusty celestial friend is making a comeback as an option for hosting human colonies outside Earth – it is our moon! Bjarke Ingle’s BIG and 3D-printed building company ICON is working on Project Olympus – a mission to develop robotic construction for the moon. Bjarke Ingles is the Elon Musk of the architectural world, he loves to explore the impossible and has a penchant for designs that can help save mankind right from his environmentally friendly buildings to Project Olympus. Project Olympus is about finding a way to create a 3D-printed infrastructure for living on the moon using materials found on its surface. 

The winner of NASA’s competition to design a 3D-printed habitat for Mars is the Zopherus designed by an Arkansas-based team. The design is envisioned to be built from the materials available on the planet and showcases a settlement with rounded hut-like structures. The construction is designed to be 3D printed, without any human intervention to keep the place ready for the humans before they arrive. The process starts with a lander who settles and looks for a suitable area to start building the settlement, the lander deploys autonomous robots who gather the material for the process to start.

Texas-based startup Orion Span plans to utilize space in a whole new way, by creating a luxury space hotel designed to open in 2022 (I’m sure COVID was not featured in their plans!) Named Aurora Station, the £70 million space hotel is designed to orbit 200 miles above the earth. The hotel plans to hold four guests and two crew members for a total 12-day trip and is priced at about £6.7 million per person. “Upon launch, Aurora Station goes into service immediately, bringing travelers into space quicker and at a lower price point than ever seen before, while still providing an unforgettable experience,” said Frank Bunger, founder of Orion Span. The entire design will be processed by a team led by Frank Eichstadt, who is credited as being the principal architect on the International Space Station’s Enterprise module. “Orion Span has additionally taken what was historically a 24-month training regimen to prepare travelers to visit a space station and streamlined it to three months, at a fraction of the cost,” said Bunger.

NASA scientists and the University of Arizona’s agricultural department have teamed up to develop this inflatable greenhouse that can be used to grow vegetables in deep space. The result of this experiment is to sustain astronauts on a vegetarian diet while staying for the long term on the Moon or Mars. While NASA scientists have been growing crops in the International Space Station, this 18×7 feet design can be used for air revitalization, water recycling, or waste recycling and also repurposing the carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts. R. Gene Giacomelli, director of the controlled environment agriculture center at the University of Arizona states “We’re mimicking what the plants would have if they were on earth, and using of these processes for life support. The entire system of the lunar greenhouse does represent, in a small way, the biological systems that are here on earth.”

Playmobil Releasing Giant 39-Inch USS Enterprise Playset: Beam Me Up, Scotty

Posted on by

Hot on the heels of their successful Back to the Future DeLorean and Marty McFly’s truck playsets, Playmobil is releasing another set aimed at adults with this giant Star Trek: The Original Series USS Enterprise NCC-1701. I’ve already added it to both my birthday and Christmas lists.

The 148-piece USS Enterprise measures 39-inches long and features numerous light and sound effects, as well as dialog from the original show. Playable areas include the ship’s bridge (with a place to put your smartphone in landscape mode to act as the bridge’s monitor, seen above) and engineering room (with dilithium core that powers the ship on and sounds an alarm when removed, seen below).

The set includes seven figures (Captain Kirk, Spock, Lt. Uhura, Doctor McCoy, Hikaru Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov), some tribbles, phasers, and other accessories as well as hardware to hang the ship, and a display stand. It will be available on September 21st with a retail price of $500. That’s a lot of space bucks!

I was just about ready for Scotty to beam me up until I heard the price. I can’t even remember the last time I spent $500 on a toy and got away with it, but you can rest assured it’s only because my wife hasn’t found out about it yet.

[via Gizmodo]

Innovative Space-inspired Designs that Elon Musk would totally approve of!

Posted on by

SpaceX intensified and completely magnified everybody’s love for space. The hope of someday living on Mars converted regular old people into total spaceheads! And this craze has entered the design world as well. Space-themed product designs are becoming a norm now, and not to mention cooler by the day. From a SpaceX rocket-inspired pen to a Buick Electra concept inspired by a spaceship – these innovative space-themed designs will have you going gaga over them!

Inspired by the democratization of space travel and how one private company, founded by Elon Musk is leading the charge to make space travel accessible to all, the Nominal Pen is literally designed to look like a rocket… making it perhaps the most literal take on the ‘space pen’. The pen’s name comes from the term ‘nominal’, often used for when everything’s going smoothly and according to plan. Designed as a celebration of SpaceX’s recent achievements of being the only private company to send humans to the ISS and bring them back (while even retrieving parts of the spaceship to be reused at a later date – something nobody’s ever done), the Nominal Pen models itself on the Falcon series of rockets (the Falcon 9 Block 5 in particular). The pen comes in a similar light+dark metal finish, featuring four retractable legs that open out, allowing it to stand vertically on its own… after all, it would be quite shameful to have to put a rocket-shaped pen in your pen-stand, right? The Nominal Pen’s retractable legs are operated by a twist-to-open mechanism machined right into the pen’s metal body… while the opposite end of the pen features a magnetic crew capsule that detaches from the rocket body!

Traveling in zero gravity at insanely fast speeds already induces so many changes in our bodies despite training and protective suits – can you imagine what would happen to the belongings in your bag? Exoplanet exploration requires luggage that can survive with you. “We didn’t want future travelers to carry a crumpled carrier, with harsh conditions, rugged terrain, and differential atmospheric pressure,” said the designer duo and made sure that Astroneer is modular and has no volume constraints – once again, something we on Earth could also use. Astroneer comes with bags of different sizes that can all compactly be packed into one unit. It also has increased liquidity in the environment with the suspension of wheels so that you don’t have to carry your bags even though they might be lighter in outer space, roll with it…literally.

Meet the HUM! – a reverse humidifier that actually puts all that vapor to good use. The interesting visual scenario of the spaceship with the vapor is a mesmerizing scenario I cannot stop watching! Humidifiers by default are a must-have in our homes, and given the core functionality of the design, we rarely see more than a rectangular box. The usual upward humidifying activity gets inverted here, with the vapor escaping through a perforated bottom. Form follows function, but HUM! is the perfect example of how form amplifies engagement! As an added cool feature, the intensity of humidification increases when you lift the spaceship body, reinforcing the visual of a rocket taking off into space.

Posting to the r/SpaceXLounge on Reddit, the SpaceX Travel card shows the easy and fun interactions in the process of booking a ticket to Mars. Visually the card is similar in size to a credit card and fits in one hand, making it easy to access all the touchpoints on the card. While this is a paper mock-up, we can imagine a slim enough e-ink screen to allow for the technology to carry this. Launch the booking process with fingerprint identification and specify your current location and destination – we may go from the moon to Saturn.

Buick Electra Concept is a four-wheeler that will be propelled by a powerful electric drivetrain that doesn’t take much space – having a man maximum machine minimum philosophy that focuses on passenger comfort and elevated experience of commuting from one destination to the other. If there’s one electric car that you would want to drive after riding your Tesla Model 3 on pure aesthetic value, it would be this one. That superlative association is influenced by the sheer fluidic design of the Buick Electra that’s so subtle and stylish – evoking an instant sense of comfort and safety on a high-speed drive on the freeway. Culminated by pro designer Liang Feng, the concept car is the futuristic ride you’d expect to drive in a distant future where minimalism and function will be the primary drivers for the design language of automobiles.

This special watch pays great attention to detail and you will recognize those little things instantly if you are a space nerd. For instance, it features styling elements from the new SpaceX ultra-modern space suits. Then it takes it up a notch by using the Dragon V2 capsule’s design details – the grey dial ring, white indices, and the unique hands which are modeled off of the capsules white oblong shaped indices and windows. “The minute-hand mimics the path of a gravitational slingshot, and the second-hand is actually a white disc on which a dot rotates to mimic the moon’s movement around the earth. The hour hand continues to nod to the design of the new and improved spacesuit, highlighting the shape and lines of the collar,” says UNDONE. And because space is an infinite black expanse, the watch dial glows in a cool nitrous blue when it’s dark.

Accompanying you on the adventures of fiction, following your journey into parts of your mind that you’ve never visited before, Spacemark is your faithful sidekick that marks your book when you’re done for the day. This metal bookmark resembles a spaceman burying a flag into a planet. The flat, 2D planet slides between the pages, making it look almost like your spaceman sidekick’s marked your book with his trusty-old flag, so you know exactly where to begin from the next time you open the book to dive into your literary adventure!

Designer Denis Agarkov’s thought process behind the ICARUS-4 Space Sneaker is simple. If we’re going to get humans into space, shouldn’t we also have an extraplanetary sense of design to match? The ICARUS-4 are conceptual sneakers for zero-gravity lifestyles… Designed for astronauts to provide maximum flexibility during repairs and maintenance, but cool-looking enough to be a universal fashion statement, the ICARUS-4 comes with a unique aesthetic that’s equal parts suited for a spacewalk and a ramp-walk. You’re looking at a shoe that sports an Ortho-Fabric body (the kind found on EMU suits) and a metal clasp to secure the footwear, with luminescent markers to allow you to wear the shoe in low-light conditions.

The Apollo AR Clock and Saturn V AR Model capture our tryst with space travel in mind-boggling detail. The clock itself is a 12-hour chronicle of every single mission to the moon, leading from Apollo 1, right up to Apollo 17, our most recent moon-bound journey. The clock’s circular shape mimics the design of a porthole window, giving you a glimpse of the moon right outside, while the hands are in fact, a rocket and launch tower, and the numbers on the clock represent the official patches from the NASA Apollo missions.

Meet the AIR6Plus, a tiny purifier that sanitizes the air down to 0.001 micrometers within a space of 360 sqft without generating any sound or even any waste. It comes with a pre-filter that’s washable and infinitely reusable, and the purifier itself can get rid of anything, from the stench of smoke to even actual germs and viruses. The AIR6Plus purifier is about the size of a smart speaker and can be placed anywhere within the house. It switches on with the simple touch of a button on the top, activating the state-of-the-art purification system within with three fan speeds – Sleep, Normal, Turbo.

Cork Rocket Desk Organizer: This Is Ground Control to Major Tom

Posted on by

Because who doesn’t already spend the majority of their workday daydreaming about outer space, SUCK UK has just made the visualization even easier thanks to this Cork Rocket Desk Organizer. The sustainably sourced rocket is perfect for storing pens and pencils, plus you can pin notes or photos of your loved ones back on earth to the outside.

The rocket stands about 11″ tall and, just like all my desk drawers, I’m going to fill it with candy instead of office supplies. I’m sort of known as the candy guy around the office, and I’m fairly certain my seemingly endless supply of sweets is the only reason I still haven’t been fired. I can’t even remember the last time I actually did some work around here.

Am I slowly going to replace everything in my cubicle with the space memorabilia I’ve collected over the years until the whole thing is entirely space-themed? Absolutely. I mean how many other people do you know who can say they have a rejection letter from Space Camp hanging above their desk?

[via Dude I Want That]

Hallmark’s Keepsake 2021 Millennium Falcon Christmas Ornament

Posted on by

Because nothing quite says Christmas like Star Wars (back me up, 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special!), Hallmark is releasing this 2021 Keepsake Ornament of the Millennium Falcon (affiliate link). The metal ship measures 3.78″ wide, 1.4″ tall, 5.22″ long, and features a shiny silver finish. And with all the Mandalorian ornaments I’ve already purchased this year, I could probably decorate an entire Christmas tree with a Star Wars theme.

The ornament was designed by Hallmark artist Robert Hurlburt. However, I’m fairly certain the Corellian Engineering Corporation deserves most of the credit for building the YT-1300f light freighter the Millennium Falcon was modded from in the first place. Star Wars joke!

My wife and I have an entire box of Hallmark Keepsake ornaments commemorating different special occasions and anniversaries throughout the years. Or, I should say, we had an entire box of Hallmark Keepsake ornaments before I accidentally donated them all to Goodwill after mistaking the box for our old dinnerware. Obviously, I sadly expect my Christmas list to go largely unanswered this year.

[via Mental Floss]

Bow TIE Fighters: For Dark Side Black Tie Affairs

Posted on by

Because what else would you wear to the Galactic Federation’s next fundraising ball, these are the Bow TIE Fighters made and sold by Etsy shop Kilted Katana. I can already close my eyes and hear my wife asking me to please pick a different tie and put my lightsaber replica away before leaving for her cousin’s wedding.

Available in three different TIE fighters (classic, TIE Interceptor, TIE Advanced) and three different tie options (neck band, clip-on, or hair tie), Bow Tie Fighters cost $20 apiece and are sure to let people know you’re as classy as James Bond, but can also quote the majority of the original Star Wars trilogy.

Nice, but where’s the X-wing bow tie to match? I mean how are a friend and I supposed to run around pretending we’re locked in space battle if we’re both wearing TIE fighters? We’re on the same side! Also, ten dollars says my bow TIE fighter magically disappears from the closet prior to my wife’s company Christmas party this year.

[via TheGreenHead]

Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Besoz need to get their hands on this space-friendly luggage!

Posted on by

Space tourism is currently a race and a status symbol amongst billionaires but it won’t be long before it becomes the next big travel trend…of course, the ticket costs will be out of this world for most of us, but we can still get the appropriate luggage and daydream! Astroneer is luggage designed keeping in mind the possibility of space travel becoming a popular ‘exotic’ destination in the future. Even if you aren’t going to space, the way bags are handled at the airport might make this NASA-level luggage an investment worth considering.

Travelling in zero gravity at insanely fast speeds already induces so many changes in our bodies despite training and protective suits – can you imagine what would happen to the belongings in your bag? Exoplanet exploration requires luggage that can survive with you. “We didn’t want future travellers to carry a crumpled carrier, with harsh conditions, rugged terrain and differential atmospheric pressure,” said the designer duo and made sure that Astroneer is modular and has no volume constraints – once again, something we on Earth could also use. Astroneer comes with bags of different sizes that can all compactly be packed into one unit. It also has increased liquidity in the environment with the suspension of wheels so that you don’t have to carry your bags even though they might be lighter in outer space, roll with it…literally. The CMF is carefully chosen for the concept to provide visibility in an environment where it is difficult to check the contents inside by giving electric signals to the glass which lets you adjust the transparency of the luggage – this might just be my most favorite feature yet. It also has internal environmental controls to protect your belongings!

So while Richard Branson went to space, he certainly missed out on having the coolest suitcase at baggage claim. Maybe by the time its our turn to take off, we can get an Astroneer in custom colors!

Designers: JooHyung Park and Sunjin Baek

 

Stainless Steel Rocket Cocktail Shaker: For out of This World Mixed Drinks

Posted on by

Designed by drinkware manufacturer Viski, the Rocket Cocktail Shaker (affiliate link) is a 24-ounce stainless steel drink shaker in the form of a retro rocket. I can already see myself holding a highly-anticipated countdown to happy hour. 3…2…1…blastoff!

This would be the perfect shaker for a space-themed bar. Or an actual bar in outer space. Do we have those yet? I thought the 2020s were supposed to be the future. This sure doesn’t look like the future. Where’s my hoverboard? Where’s my jetpack? I feel like every single 1980s and ’90s movie about the future lied to us. Curse you, Back To The Future II!


Could you imagine if James Bond insisted that not only his martinis were shaken, but shaken in a Rocket Cocktail Shaker? People would think he’s crazy. Or drunk. But they definitely wouldn’t think he’s a spy, so mission accomplished.

[via The Awesomer]