Craft News: Blankets for out of This World
Three Mums turn their spare time into an out of this world career!
I’m a huge fan of blankets and love nothing more than curling up in one with a good book. It would appear I’m not the only one, and even satellites enjoy this level of comfort!
You might be surprised to know that the blankets are made in a similar fashion too. In fact, three Mums turned their spare time into space time, by helping to make these thermal blankets specifically for satellites.
The new recruits stitch thermal space blankets
The three craft-loving women ditched their sewing patterns and glue guns to take on an out-of-this-world job opportunity.
Angela Ashill was looking for a change of career and happened to see an advert for a skilled craftsperson at STFC’s space facility, RAL Space, based in Didcot. Although the job was nothing like she’d ever done before, she knew she had to apply.
Angela said: “I never expected to work anywhere like this. I had been running a card-making business at home when I saw the advert for the MLI position at RAL Space. I was intrigued”
Claire Morgan, like many mums, struggled to balance working against the costs of childcare after the birth of her third child. She became an OFSTED registered childminder and learned to sew and bake for family and friends.
She said: “After my kids went to school I started thinking about doing something else but it needed to fit round them. A friend of mine who already worked for RAL Space in engineering showed me the job advert. She suggested I give it a go.”
The third new team member, Kim Morgan, has always had an interest in sewing and science – but never imagined she would be sewing thermal blankets in a laboratory.
“When I saw the job advert on the RAL Space website it looked like my ideal job because it involved making stuff.”
Multi Skilled Sewing Technicians
Making thermal blankets is a very skilled practical task; technicians need to be able to precisely measure, cut and in some cases, sew the blankets. This requires nimble-fingers and the skill to think three-dimensionally. Many of these skills are used by craftspeople, so the job advert called for people with a love of sewing and crafting.
While RAL Space has had a growing number of customers for MLI expertise, recruiting the right staff to keep up with demand had been an ongoing issue until Angela, Claire and Kim joined Steven Cross in the team.
MLI Facility Manager Edward Jones said: “We realised we had been coming at the recruitment process as engineers.
“The issue was that we were thinking about the skills we had, rather than those actually needed for the role. So the recruitment team re-phrased the advert, took out much of the technical jargon and refocused on the craft skills needed for the job.”
Keeping Everything Clean and Correct
It’s clear that the MLI team have quickly got to grips with the technical nature of the job and take pride in their work.
Angela said: “We get given a pattern from the engineers and what they want to achieve. We need to work out the stages of putting everything together. There really isn’t as much sewing as I had thought, much more cutting the pattern and sticking with special tape.”
With every kilogram launched into space costing several thousand pounds, everything has to be very precise and everything has to work perfectly when it gets into orbit.
Claire described the process of keeping everything clean and correct: “We weigh everything and cut accurately to make sure we don’t add excess weight. There can’t be any stray fibres or bubbles in the tape because the trapped air would expand and it would come apart when the spacecraft is in a vacuum.”
Care and Attention to Detail
Kim agreed with the need for care and attention, and explained: “Each blanket is unique so you can’t rush it. If you rush it you’ll make mistakes. I’m a very visual person, I like to see something being made from start to finish. It is definitely inspiring that they go into space.”
And there are even some skills that transfer the other way according to Claire, who said: “Working in a cleanroom, with lots of visitors coming through RAL Space, I’ve become a lot cleaner and tidier with my work at home and much more precise making decorations for cakes.”
RAL Space is set to get even busier with around 500 blankets to make for external projects over the next 2 to 3 years and growing interest from beyond the space sector. Last year, the UK Government announced it would invest £100million in a new state-of-the-art satellite testing facility at RAL Space in the coming years, demonstrating that the UK space sector is going from strength to strength.
Edward said: “We are delighted with Kim, Claire and Angela, they had just the skills we needed and are a brilliant addition to our team. With new skills that wouldn’t be available otherwise and a different way of looking at the task. We need more people like this taking up jobs in the UK space industry.”
Do you think you could sew thermal blankets for outer space? Let us know in the comments below. This also reminds us of our Love Darg campaign!
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