If you didn’t know, aerogel is “an open-celled, mesoporous, solid foam that is composed of a network of interconnected nanostructures and that exhibits a porosity of no less than 50%.”
Translation: It’s light (a gallon of water weighs as much as 150 brick-sized aerogel pieces), warm (lowest thermal conductivity of any solid) and strong (can hold 4,000 times its weight).
Thanks to those unique physical characteristics, aerogel is actually NASA’s material of choice when it comes to thermally insulating spaceships, spacesuits and the fleet of Mars Rovers.
Now, thanks to a Cincinnati-based company, the space-age tech is being put to use on earth.
OROS Apparel used a proprietary formulation of aerogel called solarcore to create a line of jackets, gloves, pants and hats that are thinner and warmer than almost anything on the market.
In addition to being waterproof as well as durable, the garments’ outstanding thermal conductivity properties help keep body temperatures regulated during heat waves … or if they’re blasted with liquid nitrogen.
“The difference in all our outerwear is the solarcore technology,” OROS CEO Michael Markesbery told Digital Trends. “There is no better insulator, and because it is literally made of air, there is nothing lighter. It’s up to eight times more effective than traditional insulation.”
If you wanna try ’em out for yourself, order them here, but maybe skip the liquid nitrogen test.
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