Race cars often don’t have amenities like fans or air conditioning, so their interiors can reach upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Many race teams shave their lap times down through engineering, such as better aerodynamics or reducing the weight of the car, but comfort tends not to be a priority. In the competitive world of auto racing, fractions of a second can mean the difference between losing or taking home the cup. One of its partners brought Outlast to a different kind of sport altogether: motorsports. Working with many different partners, Outlast has incorporated its “Thermocules” into outdoor gear, bedding, infant swaddling, and sportswear, and other clothes. In the 1990s, the company Gateway Technologies, now known as Outlast Technologies, acquired exclusive patent rights from Triangle to incorporate phase-change microcapsules into insulation and began developing new techniques for using them in all kinds of fabric. The inserts never made their way into orbit, but to the engineers who developed them, they showed much promise. Triangle’s work for NASA successfully incorporated microcapsules containing a phase-change material into a synthetic-fiber insulating material for a spacesuit glove insert. This ensures that the material, much like Goldilocks’ porridge, always feels just right. No matter what phase it’s in, in either hot or cold environments, the temperature stays around the melting point. This works in the opposite direction as well, releasing heat as the material solidifies again. As surrounding temperatures rise, the heat the material absorbs melts it from solid to liquid. Phase-change materials absorb and release heat through basic characteristics of matter. The secret was found in phase-change materials. In the 1980s, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston entered into a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Triangle Research and Development Corporation to develop a glove material that would help maintain a steady, comfortable temperature. Now a technology originally designed for spacesuits is being used to make temperature-regulating underwear for the people who drive the fastest vehicles on land.įor spacewalks to even be possible, spacesuits need major insulation and temperature controls to withstand temperature swings between 250 and minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. From space shuttle tire engineering ending up in road tires to zero-gravity body posture studies helping make comfy car seats, decades of space development have resulted in better cars. Technology developed for space has turned up in cars for years.