Textiles in Space
5/4/202638 min
The fanciest suit isn't on the runway, it's in orbit. In this follow-up episode, Taylor and Andrew bring back Kate Winning from Oxford Space Systems to dive into the world of space textiles. From the knitted gold-plated mesh antennas that fold up for launch and deploy to the size of a room, to the 14-layer suit that keeps astronauts alive. Learn why tungsten makes a better yarn than you'd expect, how ancient crafts still have a place in high tech manufacturing, and why the hardest part of a spacesuit might just be the gloves.
Thanks to Kate...
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 0· Soundbite0:02
I would like to describe a field in which little has been done, but in which an enormous amount can be done. This field is not quite the same as the others in that it will tell us little of fundamental physics, but it will tell us much about the strange phenomena that occur just below our perception. In contrast to the natural philosophers of the past, the scientists of this field delve into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places. Their quest is to understand and create the imperceptible. After all, there is plenty of room at the bottom.
Andrew Falkowski· Host0:32
Hello, and welcome to the Materialism Podcast, an exploration of the past, present, and future of material science and engineering. My name is Andrew Falkowski. I'm a student at the University of Utah, and I'm joined by my co-host and my professor, Dr. Taylor Sparks, and we are joined once again by Kate Winning from Oxford Space Systems. Previously, we did a great episode on all things textile materials, and now we're going to go to her home turf, that is textiles for space applications and beyond. Taylor, Kate, how are you both doing?
Taylor Sparks· Co-host1:02
Fantastic, and this is gonna be such a good episode. I can tell because I'm super excited about this one and studying for it. Kate, how are you doing?
Kate Winning· Guest1:08
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me again. I'm really looking forward to talking about this.
Andrew Falkowski· Host1:14
Perfect. So maybe just to start, your work, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you do on a daily basis at, uh, Oxford Space Systems, and first how you, how you got there from a degree in textile, uh, engineering or is it textile