Weaving for Mars: Ancient Technique Will Aid Red Planet Mission

Bally Ribbon Mills was founded in 1923 in Bally, Pennsylvania, and is still run by members of the family that started the business, according to an article published by NASA. Now, the company is helping NASA build an improved heat shield for the agency's Orion human spacecraft. By weaving together threads made of a quartz composite, the company can produce a 3-inch-thick (7.6 centimeters) material using a weaving method that dates back millennia, according to an article in NASA Spinoff, a publication about nonspace applications that come out of the agency.