Ski-Jacket Tech Is Going to the Moon

The sky is a great place for brands to send their logos. There are billboards, blimps, skywriting, and jumbotrons. Maybe there is something else at play, as if placement in the direction of the heavens suggests divine endorsement.

I don't think it's a good idea. It is most likely for the eyes.

There is a recent collaboration between Columbia Sportswear and Houston, Texas-based Intuitive Machines. NASA has contracted with a number of private companies under the commercial lunar payload services program. These firms are going to deliver to the moon. The company's lander is scheduled to launch in March. Nova-C will be America's first visit to the surface in more than half a century.

Is it also Columbia? There is a certain cachet to gear-testing outdoors. It's difficult to beat the temperatures of -250 to + 250 degrees. Columbia wants you to know that the same shimmery gold material found in ski jackets and other cold-weather gear will be used to insulate Nova-C's fuel tank.

Haskell Backham is the senior director of innovation at Columbia, and he created the idea of Omni-Heat. In the past, Columbia has been reached out to in order to find more typical sponsorship.

There was overlap of interest in material science. Josh Marshall, a spokesman for Intuitive, says that the technology will be used on the Nova-C.

The firm could have found a different material for this purpose. It might be possible. So chalk it up for Columbia. It will get a lot of attention in a location that is hard to miss.