Technical details Open Accordion
- Outer material is 100% ballistic nylon, made in the UK
- High-stretch Cordura lining
- 3D printed vomit pocket with screw cap opening
- Vomit pocket comes with PVC Ziploc vomit bag
- Anti-gravity pocket with internal and external zip openings
- Two-way front zipper with storm flap and metal press studs
- Two fleece-lined side pockets
- Two sleeve pockets with metal press stud closure
- Zipped internal pocket
- Metal snap fastener adjusters at cuffs
- Two zipped side vents
- Fleece-lined collar with metal snap fastener belt closure
- Stretch panels at shoulders
- Articulated sleeves
- The jacket comes packed in a reusable industrial orange Mars bag
Size + fit Open Accordion
Fit guide: The Mars Jacket has a regular fit.
Model wears: Runner Tyler Maher is 6ft 4 / 193cm with a 38 inch / 97cm chest. Tyler has an athletic build and is wearing the Mars Jacket in size XL.
Personalised advice: See our size guide for more advice on sizing, or you can ask us for personalised sizing advice here.
Returns and exchanges: Don’t worry if you order something and it doesn’t fit – we have a free, no hassle 30 day return and exchange period.
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits chest | 83-90 | 91-98 | 99-106 | 107-114 | 115-122 | 123-130 |
| Fits waist | 71-76 | 76-81 | 81-86 | 86-91 | 91-96 | 96-101 |
| XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits chest | 33-36 | 36-39 | 39-42 | 42-45 | 45-48 | 48-51 |
| Fits waist | 28-30 | 30-32 | 32-34 | 34-36 | 36-38 | 38-40 |
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Also available in
The spacesuit is the greatest piece of clothing ever designed
No one set out to make the spacesuit look a certain way. The reason it looks so insane is because it’s made out of five layers of aluminised Mylar, with a surface layer of Teflon, Kevlar and Nomex. It’s the ultimate example of form following function – get it wrong, the person inside it dies. We know it works so well because it’s been central to some of humanity’s greatest achievements over the last 50 years. From the Cold War race to establish dominance in space, to the Moon landings, to the establishment of a continuous presence in low Earth orbit on the International Space Station.
It’s space clothing, but not as we know it
But today’s astronauts don’t need to wear spacesuits most of the time. When they’re in a space shuttle, or visiting the International Space Station, they wear their own clothes or overalls. The most common spacesuit you’ll see these days is the orange ESS space shuttle suit, which looks a bit like a boilersuit. But as low Earth orbit gets busier with satellites, tourists and hotels, and as we venture further into the Solar System – to the moon and Mars and beyond – we’re going to need new clothing for new missions. Your khakis aren’t going to cut it in space.
Colonising our next planet should be a bit easier
While Mars has its dangers – from galactic cosmic rays to 20,000km wide dust storms – it remains a known quantity. Manned missions will know their destination actually exists. They’ll know the speed and direction they have to travel to reach it. They’ll know they’re not going to fall off the edge of anything on the way, or be hunted down and eaten on arrival. Prehistoric man knew none of this when they headed out of Africa 50,000 years ago to colonise Earth. Every new journey was into uncharted territory. Early man was the probe and the rover. Colonising Mars should be a bit easier.
Space is a hard environment for gear
Space makes life on Earth look easy. Temperatures range from hundreds of degrees below freezing, to hundreds of degrees above – especially if a spacecraft gets too close to The Sun. Each planet comes with a different atmosphere and gravity level. And even the stuff space is made of will attack you. The Moon is covered with sharp-edged and abrasive lunar dust particles. And while there are fewer sharp edges on Mars, as the soil has been worn down by wind, there’s evidence of chemical oxidants that can degrade materials like rubber and plastic. You also weigh less on the Moon and Mars, so you’ll inevitably end up lugging more gear.
Made from ballistic nylon
To build the outer shell of the Mars Jacket we turned to a material used to protect soldiers from flying debris and shrapnel caused by bullet and artillery shell impact. Ballistic nylon was developed for use in flak jackets used by World War Two airmen. As well as being insanely durable, tough and tear-resistant, ballistic nylon features a high-tenacity filament-like fibre, giving it a utilitarian appearance. So the more you beat it up the better it will look.
Ultra-comfortable against your body
While ballistic nylon is amazing at deflecting shrapnel, debris and things with sharp edges, we’ve lined the inside of the Mars Jacket with high stretch Cordura, so it’s incredibly soft and snug. Highly elastic and windproof it’s the same material we use to line our Ice Age Fleece. It means that you’ll never have any of the Mars Jacket’s reinforced stitching, metal snaps or military specification zippers next to your skin.
To build the future you have to imagine it first
Thanks to the sacrifices of early explorers, and pioneering work of material scientists, staying warm, dry and alive on Earth has been solved. But how you deal with a human being vomiting in shifting gravity fields hasn’t. That’s why we’re starting work on the most important challenges we’re going to face over the next century. The future doesn’t make itself. And our future is still going to involve bodily functions.
Built with its own vomit pocket
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.
Sealed with a 3D printed screw cap
You’ll find the vomit pocket on the left-hand side of the chest. The outside of the pocket is a laser printed black screw cap made from Nylon powder. Each cap is 3D printed using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), a process in which the powder is fused with heat from a high-power laser. Open up the screw cap and you’ll find your Vollebak Vomit Bags inside. You’ll recognise them because they say ‘Vollebak Vomit Bag’ on them and they’re bright orange.
Ziploc bags to avoid leaks
Your coordination and vision tend to be a bit off when you throw up. So each Vomit Bag is 24cm x 21cm and made of industrial orange PVC that you’re unlikely to miss. Every bag comes with a Ziploc seal and a 1cm thumb tab to get it open quickly. To ensure the contents stay where they should, the two rings of the screw cap lock together between the material of the jacket. You’ll then need to dispose of the contents carefully.
Five more pockets for all your kit
The Mars Jacket comes with plenty of pockets that aren’t for puking. You’ll find two regular side pockets with zippers and snap fastenings, so you can use them faster when you’re out on reconnaissance. The inside of each pocket is fleece-lined and elastic. There’s an inside chest pocket large enough to store your communication device, space food, or a book from home. And there are two pockets on the upper arm of both sleeves that fasten with snap fasteners.
An anti-gravity pocket
The further you get away from Earth the less gravitational force there is, which means you’re going to spend a decent amount of time floating around. So at the bottom left-hand side of the jacket you’ll find an anti-gravity pocket. It works the same way as a regular pocket, except the other way up. If you’re using the jacket floating about in space, you open the pocket at the bottom. If you’re using it on Earth you can open the jacket up and the anti-gravity pocket is accessible from the inside too. But from the inside it works the normal way up.
We’ve turned ballistic nylon stretchy
Behind each shoulder we’ve built an elasticated panel of ballistic nylon, so however much gear you’re lugging in low gravity, your jacket won’t get in your way. And if you’re working hard, two large zipped side vents help to cool you down if you get hot. They run from the bottom hem of the jacket halfway up to your armpits. So you can open up the bottom of the jacket like a sleeping bag on both sides if you need to cool down rapidly.
Reusable packaging for future missions
All our Mars gear comes in its own industrial orange Mars bags with endlessly reusable black cable ties. Working in deep space for months or years will mean astronauts have limited access to supplies. There’s no Amazon Prime up there yet. The further we go into deep space, the more important it will be to generate products with local materials – something called in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU). In space you’ll have to create things with the stuff you already have. Everything needs to be high performance and low impact. So we can’t tell you exactly what second and third uses you will find for the packaging yet. We just know that you will.
Wear the jacket with the Mars Pants
While space flight sounds glamorous and the rockets look cool, the human body remains a very fragile thing to send out into the solar system. Lunar landers and Mars Rovers are designed to exist in space, but the human body isn’t. It’s a liability. It needs food, water, oxygen, companionship, purpose, sleep, light, dark and bathroom breaks. So as well as being built from ballistic nylon, the Mars Pants have a horizontal fly based on flight suits back on Earth. It’s designed to help you get in and out faster and with less chance of chafing.
