NASA 4D Printed Space Fabric

This may look like a simple kitchen or bathroom tile, but we assure you it’s much more. Created by NASA, this pliable metallic textile is a strip of Space Armor designed to protect astronauts and spacecraft from space debris, capturing objects and particles kicked up from the surface of other planets, and act as insulation to help retain heat while in icy climates like Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Though the piece was made using a 3D printer, NASA is calling it 4D printing due to the fact that it was printed with geometry and functionality in mind.