TEKTITES 2.0. The New Era of Extreme Materials for Space and Planetary Engineering

This article presents an interdisciplinary analysis of tektites as extreme materials, integrating archaeological, symbolic, geological, and technological perspectives. Building upon a previous study focused on the cultural and mythological interpretations of tektites, the present work explores their modern significance in materials engineering, photonics, extreme-environment electronics, and planetary science. Special emphasis is placed on recent research — particularly from China — which treats tektites as natural prototypes of functional glass capable of operating in space conditions. The article also introduces the concept of “Tektites 3.0,” a vision of future intelligent, adaptive, and information-bearing materials with potential applications in interplanetary missions and advanced technologies. Tektites are presented as a bridge between ancient symbolic intuition and contemporary scientific understanding, uniting past, present, and future within a coherent material narrative.