Watch: Designers showcase fashion and interiors fit for life on Mars

Watch: Designers showcase fashion and interiors fit for life on Mars
Copyright AP
By Euronews with AP
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:Copy to clipboardCopied

Should NASA's plans come to fruition, one day there will be (human) life on Mars. Designers are showcasing what future Martians might wear and how they might live.

ADVERTISEMENT

Should NASA's plans come to fruition, one day there will be (human) life on Mars. The space agency hopes to send people to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

And now designers are showcasing what those future Martians might wear and how they might live.

Inflatable living pods, solar blankets and a full-scale model of the ExoMars rover are on display at Moving to Mars, a new exhibition at London's Design Museum which opened on Friday.

International design firm Hassell is showcasing a full-scale prototype Mars habitat, making maximum use of the materials which would be to hand. The structure has been developed as a harmonious, domed, shell which makes use of every inch of space.

Read more: What on Earth (monitoring) can Copernicus do for me?

Key to the habitat's design is sustainability – the flooring is made from bamboo and the furniture is 3D-printed from recycled plastics, which on Mars could come from discarded packaging or as leftover materials from science experiments.

"We had to think sustainable to make it work. The shell structure, the protection shield is made out of Martian dust," says Xavier De Kestelier, head of design technology and innovation at Hassell.

In terms of what to wear, London fashion studio Raeburn has produced the New Horizons collection, inspired by the adaptive reuse approach. It uses lightweight insulating material designed by NASA for space exploration, including solar blankets and parachutes.

"Sustainability is not a thing, it's not a trend. It's a very real reality in this instance," says its director Graeme Raeburn.

"You've got an absolutely limited amount of resource, there is no restock coming, you can't pop out to the shops and go and get something. So, can you actually reuse something? Is it available to repair? Have you got those repair tools? Is there a sewing machine on board?"

Raeburn says the creativity driven by Mars missions will also have an effect on how we live back on Earth.

"You only have to look at actually the trickledown effect from the space race, from going to the moon and what that's enabled, what that's been a catalyst for, actually accelerating all kinds of technology, batteries, mobile phones, material science, the clothing that we're wearing, have all been improved."

Moving to Mars will run until 23 February, 2020.

Video editor • Olivier Vigouroux

Share this articleComments

You might also like

Watch NASA's first all-female spacewalk

Watch NASA unveil the spacesuits astronauts will wear on the moon, Mars

European Space Agency probe captures new photos of 700km dried-up river system on Mars