AP
Spacecraft to Begin Journey to Mercury
32 minutes ago
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA (news - web sites) is about to embark on its hottest mission ever, to Mercury.
The Messenger spacecraft, to be launched next week, will be blasted by up to 700-degree heat as it orbits the tiny planet closest to the sun — so close that it would be as though 11 suns were beating down on Earth.
Remarkably, the only thing between the probe's room-temperature science instruments and the blistering sun and pizza-oven heat will be a handmade ceramic-cloth quilt just one-quarter of an inch thick.
"If it doesn't stay toward the sun, it will fry everything," said Neal Bachtell, mechanical technician and master quilter.
Bachtell used X-Acto blades to cut the 3M Nextel fabric and then —
relying on sewing tips from his mother — used an industrial sewing machine to stitch the off-white pieces together into an 8-by-9-foot quilt, using Teflon-coated fiberglass thread. It was a nasty job; the itchy, ceramic-fiber cloth sheds and is bad to inhale.
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Here's to mom's the world over! :toast: