NZ Herald article 23 Oct, 2018 7:00pm
New Zealand wool may be about to go where no human has gone before: deep space.
Nasa is currently evaluating a Kiwi-made, wool-based filter system to protect astronauts in its Orion spacecraft, being designed to explore the moon, Mars and asteroids.
Designed by Auckland-based wool innovators Lanaco, the HelixTM filter was sourced from purpose-bred sheep and was now being tested for use in the craft’s emergency life-support system, which would be activated in the event of a fire.
The Helix filter could be used as a pre-filter layer for emergency personal equipment and cabin air systems, preventing clogging in other filter layers by removing thick contaminants like molten plastic.
Davenport’s previous start-up, Nexus Foams, supplied manufacturers with polymer based material components used in everything from civil construction to electronic and medical devices.
After commercialising materials as parts for devices like sleep apnea machines and refrigerators, he saw an opportunity to develop new high-functioning, locally-sourced products.
“It only took a small amount of digging into the functional attributes of a wool fibre to confirm that indeed, if wool could be made into functional materials, such as filters, then several other attributes of the fibre would be appealing and valuable to consumers.”
The space capsule project arose four months ago when Boston-based technology scouting company yet2 was asked by Nasa to seek better solutions for the protection of astronauts in the next generation of spacecraft – the Orion programme.
Orion was the first programme to take man in to deep space – the moon and beyond – since the Apollo programme of the 1970s.
“The problems in space for respiratory protection are significantly more complex than here on Earth,” he said.
