Making Mars Proof Parachute Material with Peter Hill, Director-Woven Fabrics, Heathcoat Fabrics

At Mphasis Datalytyx we have a regular weekly meeting where someone will present a technical solution or process to the rest of the company. It's a good learning and team-bonding exercise.

This week we were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker, Peter Hill, Director-Woven Fabrics of Heathcoat Fabrics. Heathcoat designed and manufactured the material that was used in the parachutes for the Mars Perseverance Rover which successfully and safely landed the rover on the surface of Mars on the 18th of February 2021.

Peter tells us about the colourful history of Heathcoat from its inception in 1808 through to its history designing parachutes for the military and up to how they were introduced to NASA employees looking for fabric that could be heat-treated to kill microorganisms without losing 50% of its strength (which was typical). Heathcoat had just the fabric.

https://www.heathcoat.co.uk/persevera...
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacec...

https://www.datalytyx.com