Western Morning News (Saturday)
Mars mission could put West tech on map
THE director of a Devon company involved in a Nasa mission to find evidence of life on Mars has said he hopes the landing can help raise the profile of the South West’s “underplayed” tech and aerospace sectors.
Tiverton-based textiles company Heathcoat Fabrics made the parachute that helped land the US space agency’s Perseverance rover this week, which is looking for traces of ancient life and collecting soil and rock samples for examination back on Earth.
Heathcoat’s canopy, which is specially designed to strengthen when exposed to extraordinarily high temperatures, slowed the probe down from supersonic speeds of around 12,500mph to 200mph as it hurtled towards the Red Planet.
The lightweight fabric it uses, which also prevents the inadvertent transport of microbes from Earth into space, has seen it become the supplier of choice of Nasa, the European Space Agency and private space exploration companies.
Its fabric is currently used in equipment that generates oxygen on the International Space Station and also featured in the parachute that landed Mars Beagle 2 in 2003.
Perseverance has landed in the 28-mile-wide Jezero crater on Mars, where scientists believe organic molecules could be preserved from when an ancient river delta formed there 3.5 billion years ago.
Ahead of the descent on Thursday night Peter Hill, a director at Heathcoat Fabrics, admitted he was feeling some nerves. He said: “This is the biggest rover that’s ever been landed on Mars and it’s a really difficult thing to achieve.”
Heathcoat Fabrics has also designed the parachute for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, which is scheduled to land on Mars in 2023. Back on Earth, its fabric is used in ejector seats in defence aircraft, firefighters’ protective equipment, sky-diving parachutes and in conveyor belts in wind turbines.
Mr Hill said he was “optimistic” about the future prospects of aerospace in the South West. Giants of the sector such as Airbus, which posted a net loss of £1bn in 2020, have been badly affected by the pandemic’s impact on commercial flights.
Mr Hill said: “I’m optimistic, there’s a lot of high technology companies in the South West, like ourselves. Airbus is developing a hydrogen plane, which is more efficient than jet fuel and greener as it kicks out water rather than noxious fuels.
“If you can argue that it’s green to fly, then people who are worried about the environmental impact it has will go back to flying.”
The firm was founded by lace-making machinery inventor John Heathcoat in 1808, who moved his business to in Tiverton in 1816 to escape attacks from the Luddite movement.
Mr Hill said he hoped the manufacturer’s more futuristic activity, particularly if life is found on Mars, will help raise awareness of innovations within the South West.
He said: “It’s a really big thing for our staff and for Tiverton. It would put Devon back on the map!
“It’s not just a tourist destination, we do a lot of interesting stuff here in manufacturing. I feel like the South West is a little bit underplayed.”