Nanocomposite materials

The Italian company Grado Zero Espace proposed to ESA's Innovation Triangle Initiative the idea of creating an 'intelligent' textile, rolled-up during launch, which expands when reached the correct position in space upon an 'electrical' command. The textile is created by use of state-of-the-art materials and technologies such as carbon nanotubes, novel rubber-like materials named 'nematic elastomers' and special 3-dimensional warp-knitted textile based membranes.