NASA’s latest futuristic textile is made of metal but can fold and change shape, protecting a wearer (or covered craft) from dangerous collisions that could tear holes in people or ships.

The woven metal is made up of a squares on the surface that are linked together on the back, but thanks to clever manufacturing the entire system can be created at once (rather than stitched together). With printers sent into space, this means astronauts could recycle and rebuild the material for different applications on demand.

“We call it 4D printing because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials,” explains Polit Casillas. “If 20th century manufacturing was driven by mass production, then this is the mass production of functions.”

Developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this versatile textile has thermal protective properties as well, able to to keep machinery and people warm. Despite its flexibility, the mail retains a high tensile strength and can reflect or absorb light for heat control depending on which side faces outward.

A set of 30 candidates have been selected for final consideration by NASA in the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, including robot-constructed buildings, ice architecture and underground dwellings, all designed to turn challenges of building on Mars into opportunities. The three finalists shown below represent a subset of that range of compelling possibilities, varying in their approach to materials, automation and construction techniques.

Foster + Partners proposes parachuting a series of task-specific, semi-autonomous robots to the surface, building out structures before the arrival of humans. These robotic helpers will dig holes, organize rocks and soil into building materials and use microwaves to fuse these components into place. More complex prefabricated components would then be installed into the system of resulting structures, preparing them for astronaut habitation.

The Ice House pitched by SEArch/Clouds Architecture Office offers connections between indoor and outdoor space via light filtered through frozen walls. Keeping NASA’s “follow the water” approach to space exploration in mind, the idea is to turn ice into a multilayered shell to enclose habitats and protected from radiation. “A unique 3D printing technique harnesses the physics of water and its phase transition to construct” structures.

The Mollusca L5  by LeeLabs combines inflatable shelters with fabricated structures made entirely from local surface materials. Sprawling organically like a slug, the habitat and storage areas are flexible and amorphous, combining hard walls and synthesized glass panels with soft cloth structures.

Common themes between projects include flexibility, modularity and redundancy – if either The Martian (a fictional story of a man lost on Mars) or Seveneves (in which humanity has to subsist in orbit for thousands of years) are any indication, surviving in space will mean facing challenges and overcoming obstacles through a combination of technology and ingenuity.

The race for space has shifted gears in recent years with the rise of private programs, leaving a series of amazing space-related graveyards around the United States, which this photographer has spent 25 years exploring and documenting.

In his upcoming book, Abandoned in Place, Roland Miller takes readers on a “photographic exploration of the American space launch and research facilities that played a crucial role in the early period of space exploration. The goals of this project are to preserve and portray these abandoned, deactivated, and repurposed sites through photography that surpasses the official government approach to documentation and to lend historical and artistic insight to the subject.”

With special permission (and an escort every time), Roland has managed to visit locations including the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Kennedy Space Center as well as Cape Canaveral in Florida. His book features 100 full-color photos – the best and brightest of his extension decade-spanning collection.

The photographs cover all kinds of incredible objects and details, from cranes and gantries to blast doors, flame deflector tracks, launch rings and even lunar modules. The book will be released by the University of New Mexico Press and contain poems and essays alongside its rich imagery.

This project is part guide book and part historical document – it “serves not only as a documentary body of work, but also as an artistic interpretation of these historic sites. The blockhouses, launch towers, tunnels, test stands, and control rooms featured in Abandoned In Place are rapidly giving way to the elements and demolition. By my estimates, fully half of the facilities I have photographed no longer exist. The costs involved in restoring, maintaining, and securing these sites are enormous. Most of these historic facilities are located on secure military or NASA facilities, which drastically limits access by the public. Therefore, photography is the only practical method to preserve and portray these historic locations.”

“The facilities photographed in AIP portray one of the most historic and technical adventures of the last century–from our first unmanned flights beyond the atmosphere to landing men on the moon. A sense of the urgency of the space race is evident in many of the images. Signs and labels in the images reflect the technology of the era. The structures depicted also recall the darker threat of nuclear war. Some of the images describe a future that could have been if the cold war had heated up. These launch complexes, engine test stands, and wind tunnels are the Bunker Hills and Gettysburgs of the cold war. References to the Great Pyramids, Chichen Itza, Stonehenge, and other major archeological sites foreshadow the future of these modern ruins.”

If abandoned spaceships weren’t so hard to find (please don’t look for any in Antarctica), we wouldn’t have to make them for movies, TV, art or just for fun.

Pitch Black Spaceship

(images via: No Fixed Address and RPF)

Even if you’ve never visited Coober Pedy in southern Australia, you probably have seen it via your movie or TV screen. The inhospitable desert wasteland lies in the heart of OZ’s opal mining country and the otherworldly setting has been featured as a film location for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Red Planet, and Pitch Black to name just a few. The latter flick featured the above wrecked spaceship, bought about a dozen years ago by a local shop owner after filming was completed.

(image via: RPF)

While the Pitch Black spaceship prop has held up remarkably well thanks to the Outback’s arid conditions, those who feel tempted to have themselves photographed in front of it should advise their camera-person to ensure the “SHOWERS & TOILETS” sign doesn’t photobomb the shot.

Oklahoma Cement Mixer Space Capsule

(images via: Two Wheel Oklahoma, viewAt.org and NewsOn6)

Construction crews hard at work building a bridge over Oologah Lake near Talala, Oklahoma in 1959 couldn’t believe their eyes when the driver of a cement mixer loaded with liquid cement lost control of the massive vehicle. As he swerved off Winganon Road, the truck overturned and it wasn’t long before the cement inside began to harden. The truck was salvaged, mostly… the now solid cement-filled bell was too heavy to shift and has remained in place for over a half-century.

(image via: Arkomas)

Pranksters have painted and otherwise decorated the mixer a number of times over the years; a recent redo occurring just after 9/11 when it was painted patriotically in the American flag’s stars and stripes. The latest extreme makeover dates from late September of 2011 when Barry & Heather Thomas used canning lids, garden hose and other household items to transform the mixer into a NASA space capsule as a way of celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary. Kudos to Flickr user Arkomas for posting the above cool pic.

Buran Buran

(images via: The Living Moon c/o English Russia)

In post-Soviet Russia, Earth crash on spaceship! On May 12th of 2002 the hangar housing Buran, Russia’s only space shuttle to be launched into orbit and land successfully back on Earth, collapsed during a severe storm. Eight workers lost their lives in the accident and the shuttle was destroyed. Not many know, however, that Buran was only the first of FIVE Soviet shuttles completed or under construction when the program was cancelled in 1993. The second shuttle was named Ptichka; the third was named Baikal.

(images via: The Living Moon c/o English Russia)

In October of 2004 Baikal, estimated to 30-50% completed, was moved from its hangar at the Tushino factory to an open-air car-park where it spent the next 7 years protected only by flimsy tarpaulins.

(image via: The Moscow News)

The curious image above dates from late June of 2011, when the fuselage of Shuttle 2.01 Baikal was floated down the Volga river by barge. Its ultimate destination was the MAKS 2011 international air show, which took place from August 16th through 21st at Zhukovsky town near Moscow. We don’t think that’s Russian president Vladimir Putin in the image above, returning from a bathroom break to resume towing the barge downstream, but we could be wrong (and we wouldn’t be surprised).

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Landing Stripped 8 Grounded Abandoned Spaceships

One of the world’s most amazing materials wasn’t created by nature – it was invented by a couple of scientists who made a silly bet. In 1931, Samuel Stephens Kistler and Charles Learned wanted to see who could replace the liquid in jellies with gas while causing no discernible shrinkage. Kistler wound up with an incredible substance with extremely low density, amazing strength, and unparalleled thermal insulation.

(image via: Wikimedia)

Sometimes referred to as “solid smoke” or “blue smoke,” aerogels were named in the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s lightest solid. Aerogel can be made from carbon, silica or alumina, though all of them have similar properties. They feel like unbelievably light Styrofoam, but it is strong enough to hold up impressively heavy loads.

(image via: Wikimedia)

Although aerogels never really took the world by storm during Kistler’s lifetime, scientists have since found them useful for a wide variety of applications. They are currently being used by NASA to capture space dust for study; the dust would be decimated by solids and pass through gases, but aerogel captures it perfectly.

(image via: Wikimedia)

Aerogels can also be used for chemical spill clean-ups, thermal protection for divers, residential roof insulators, and as thickeners in paint and cosmetics. With more applications being discovered every year, it seems likely that aerogels will become one of the most significant inventions of all time.

(top image via: Master George)