Rocket ships have something in common with UPS trucks: There are only so many packages you can fit in there. Hauling stuff into space is expensive, and it would be better if the things you needed to get up there could be folded up for transport, to make room for more stuff.

At the same time, these foldable items need to be made from robust materials. Thus NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been 3D printing metallic, chain-mail-like fabrics.

"We call it '4-D printing' because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials," said [NASA Systems Engineer Raul] Polit Casillas. "If 20th Century manufacturing was driven by mass production, then this is the mass production of functions."

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Fabricating spacecraft designs can be complex and costly, said Andrew Shapiro-Scharlotta of JPL, whose office funds research for early-stage technologies like the space fabric. He said that adding multiple functions to a material at different stages of development could make the whole process cheaper. It could also open the door to new designs.

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"We are just scratching the surface of what's possible," Shapiro-Scharlotta said. "The use of organic and non-linear shapes at no additional costs to fabrication will lead to more efficient mechanical designs."

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The space fabrics have four essential functions: reflectivity, passive heat management, foldability and tensile strength. One side of the fabric reflects light, while the other absorbs it, acting as a means of thermal control. It can fold in many different ways and adapt to shapes while still being able to sustain the force of pulling on it.

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The JPL actually has an in-house rapid-prototyping "Atelier" that Polit Casillas is in charge of. If the fabrics prove durable enough in space, the next steps, Polit Casillas says, will be to figure out how to both print them in space and recycle them on the spot, to be able to quickly re-purpose the material.