To do this, the engineering team has had to use new technologies and materials.

BBC: Robot sub aims for deepest ocean

In the past we talked about "dual use" military-civilian technologies, but truth be told, not much of what's in a bomb migrates back to a BMW. However, the money flowing into military and homeland infra-structure security will leverage revolutionary technologies and materials of the new digital age.

FORBES: The Security-Industrial Complex

That's because even though designers have new materials and technologies, they still have to solve the same problems that astronauts face whenever they leave the safety of a spacecraft.

NPR: NASA's Future Spacesuits Are Made for Walking

At the annual International Builders' Show in Las Vegas this week, tens of thousands, suppliers, distributors and builders convened to examine new innovations in home-building materials, appliances, fixtures and technologies.

WSJ: A Glimpse of Home Building's Future

The inclusion of food production also points to a broadening of the definition of green tech, which in the past referred more narrowly to technologies such as those for renewable electricity and biofuel production, electric car development and new materials and services that help consumers and businesses use energy more efficiently.

FORBES: Water, Food, Transportation: Where Green Tech Investments Will Go In 2013

In partnership with the likes of MIT and Georgia Tech, Pirelli Labs is studying telecommunications technologies like broadband access and photonics, which can feed back into Tel Italia, and new materials for tires and environmental cleanup.

FORBES: The Forbes Global 2000