Futuristic Billboard Built From NASA-Grade Materials Is Ready For Mars

When you’re a brand specializing in “clothes from the future”, what better way to advertise than in a forward-thinking way, too, right? That probably explains Vollebak’s approach when the apparel label unveiled the ‘first billboard for Mars’ to launch its newest 3D logo.

The apparel brand has chosen this out-of-this-world approach, constructing the hefty advertisement from corrosion-resistant material and hard anodized aluminum 6082T6, which NASA used for the Mars Curiosity Rover.  

This hard anodized material gives it a thicker natural oxide layer on its surface to create a strong barrier against electrochemical reactions.

Out on Mars, atmospheric gases, radiation, clay, and the potential presence of “liquid transient salt water” can affect the metal used in spacecraft and subject it to corrosion. So keeping things—such as this billboard—resistant to such effects will prepare it for a future on the Red Planet.

In making it ready for the future, the team looked to the past and employed an ancient Japanese architectural technique known as ‘tsugite’ to build the billboard. Essentially, it is made up of 11 individual pieces that can slot together and lock into place without nails, screws, or glue.

The tsugite method also allows the billboard to be packed and transported to the Red Planet, where robots can reassemble it.

While Vollebak is ready to bring its marketing to Mars, it knows it’s decades too early for anything to happen. For now, the brand is selling the hardy structure for “Earth-bound” display.

[via Marketing Beat and Vollebak, images via Vollebak]