Survival Blankets

You know those thin, metal-looking blankets you can purchase from the camping section in your grocery store? Ever watch a race and see the runners wrap themselves in a metallic blanket after they cross the finish line?

Enter the survival blanket. For starters, it perfectly reflects your body’s heat back onto you. This way, you don’t lose any body heat and can stay — or get — warm. It’s also made of fire-retardant material, so it won’t catch fire. People have survived forest fires by covering themselves up with these objects (as long as you still have some sort of an oxygen source, of course).

NASA created this material and has used it as insulation for just about everything it has produced over the last 50 years. This includes everything from the Apollo moon lander to satellites shot into orbit. It’s a lightweight material, is able to help absorb solar energy (or at least direct it to solar paneling on the device), and is especially durable.