Handmade quilt launched into space

Traveling into outer space? Don’t forget your quilt.

In this case, the traveler is the Mercury Messenger spacecraft. It was launched into the heavens Aug. 2, aimed toward the planet Mercury. It’s a 5 billion-mile trip, not a direct flight; it has to do-si-do with Earth, Venus and Mercury a couple of times before it gets to orbit Mercury. The Messenger will arrive at its destination in March 2011. It is the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

The Messenger is equipped with an array of high-tech equipment including star-tracking cameras, several different kinds of spectrometer, a magnetometer, a laser altimeter and a dual-imaging system. And a quilt.

The off-white quilt will shield the spacecraft from the hotter than Hades temperatures it will encounter as it orbits Mercury.

Scientists are hoping to learn what makes Mercury Mercury. They want to know how it was formed and if those data will, in turn, lead to a greater understanding of how Earth, Venus and Mars were formed.

The quilt was made by Neal Bachtell of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. The quilt is made of Nextel, a ceramic fabric manufactured by the 3M company. Nextel fabric can withstand temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees F. The fabric is used in aerospace, outer-space and industrial applications.

Of course, it’s not the first time Nextel fabric has gone along for the space ride. In the past, it has been used on spacecraft exit cones, as a micrometeorite shield, as door seals, as gaskets and as shuttle tiles.

The Mercury Messenger’s 8-by-9-foot quilt was made the old-fashioned way, by hand, on an industrial sewing machine. Bachtell’s mother provided sewing advice.

Making the quilt was not a job likely to make for a happy stitcher. The fabric is itchy, and inhaling its fibers is hazardous to eyes and skin. It was stitched with Teflon-coated fiberglass thread.

So there it is, a quilt, just a quarter-inch thick, designed to deflect heat with the intensity of 11 suns, riding toward Mercury.

After the Messenger finishes its photographic and scientific mission in 2012, it will continue to orbit Mercury until it crashes into the planet.

One small step for mankind, one giant leap for quilts.

Snippets

. The committee on women’s activities of the Maine State Grange is accepting entries for its annual needlework and craft contests. The contests are open to Grange members and nonmembers, adults and children.

Contest items must be turned in for judging at the local and county level before the Sept. 3 deadline for the state-level competition.

Categories include afghan, doily, embroidery, three-piece baby set, plastic canvas work, counted cross-stitch, adult garment, latch-hook rug, quilted wall hanging, stuffed toy, child’s garment, miscellaneous and innovative item, favorite craft project and wooden birdhouse. A full set of rules is available by calling (800) 464-3421, or by visiting www.mainestate

grange.org/needlework.htm.

. In case we actually get hot weather this month, visit www.getcrafty.com, where you will find a pattern for a knitted bikini.

. Cathy Anderson, owner of The Briar Patch in Bangor, now has available African folklore embroidery kits.

. The Pittston Farm Lodge will hold a quilters retreat with Bethany Reynolds, creator of the Stack-n-Whack method of quilting, Aug. 13-15. Call the lodge at 280-0000 for details.

. The Arts Center at Kingdom Falls in Montville will hold four fiber-related workshops Sunday Aug. 8. The workshops are on fabric painting, textile techniques for paper artists, papermaking and natural dyeing. There is no charge for the workshops, but donations are accepted. For information, call 589-3025, or visit www.kingdomfallsarts.org.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes suggestions. Call 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.