Techtextil was held in Germany, May 9 to 12, 2017. There were more than 47,500 visitors from 114 countries, an increase of around 14 per cent compared to 2015.

It hosted 1,477 exhibitors from 55 countries under the main theme Living in Space. This was a special space-travel oriented exhibition area. The highlight of the interactive area was a virtual reality journey through space to Mars that visitors could undertake and discover how technical textiles and their processing technology can make it possible to set up communities in space.

The Material Gallery showed textile products and processing technologies from around 40 selected Techtextil exhibitors with links to space travel. This year, the exhibition demonstrated the wide range of applications for high-tech textiles and textile-processing technology from and for the aerospace sector.

The Space Habitat area gave insights into how construction can function in space and what a residential environment might look like on Mars. A range of products designed to maintain life, including geo textiles for growing plants and textiles for medical applications, energy generation and filtration, were presented. Lightweight structures for space capsules and membrane systems ventilation, as well as functional apparel textiles and space inspired fashion, were also on display.