A New Type of Warmth

I sat down in my chair, sighing. The captain of our rocketship, the Vestigo, told me that I was not experienced enough and had to contribute to survival in some way. He decided that I must learn how to create something that helps people survive our new planet’s severe weather.

My first instinct was to go to the archives of the ship. The problem was, I didn’t even know what I was supposed to look for.

“I don’t even know what the weather will be like on the new planet. How am I supposed to create something if I can’t figure out how warm or cold it’s supposed to be?”

I headed to the archives. I started by looking for information on the weather of the new planet. I noticed a shelf labeled Vestigo rover. I took a few files out to look at them. One said, Pictures from the rover of the expected planet in comparison to Earth. The pictures were very similar, except the landscape of the planet Vestigo was covered in a substance that looked somewhat like snow. The caption said: The Vestigo is known for its freezing temperatures. These temperatures are about -50 degrees Fahrenheit. They are highly dangerous and can cause severe burns, also known as frostbite, sometimes resulting in amputations.

As I finished reading it, I got an idea. Our suits that we wear on the Vestigo are made of synthetic fibers that trap our body heat very well. Most of ours are made out of viscose, a wood fiberbased fabric. They would help to keep us warm on the new planet. However, they don’t have the capacity to keep us warm for longer periods of time. I would need to create something extra that would keep the synthetic fibers dry and warm.

What other materials could be used to trap heat in our bodies, or at least keep us dry? I wondered. I put the file back and wandered around the archives some more. I didn’t find much else about insulators, but I did find something about how swimmers and divers on earth kept warm. If that file had something that told how swimmers kept dry, then it could be of some use to me.

I grabbed the file and rushed out of the archives. I found myself walking toward the chair of my friend, Amani. She is an expert in chemical science.

“Hi,” she said as I entered the oxygenated room that she shared with four other people.

“I need help.” I said, wanting to get straight to the point. “The captain told me that I have to create something that will help people survive on the new planet. I was thinking that I could use the viscose suits that we are wearing now, but also have some other fabric like the stuff wetsuits are made of.”

“Hmm. Why don’t we go look in the that has all of the extra parts in it to see what our constraints are?” She said.

When we entered the closet, I noticed a lot of rolls of different materials and fabrics. The materials available were neoprene, polypropylene, rayon, cotton, wool, and polyester. There was also machinery and spare parts needed for the ship.

“I think we’ll be able to get something out of this.” Amani remarked.

I opened up the file. “It says that swimmers and divers on Earth used drysuits made out of neoprene that trapped their body heat while keeping them dry. I think we could use that for the outer layer of the suit. Cotton would also help keep people warm. We could put that underneath the neoprene and viscose.”

“Why don’t we test it?” Amani asked.

A few hours later, I was wrapped up in neoprene and cotton, along with my viscose suit, ready to step into the dry ice chamber that we used to store our food. I stepped in and Amani closed the door behind me. The dry ice was 20 degrees lower than the planet’s temperature, but we figured that it would be good to expect colder temperatures. After a few minutes, I was starting to sweat a little. I hadn’t been in the chamber for too long and was very hot from all of the layers.

After another ten minutes, I was freezing. My sweat had become cold. I stepped out of the chamber, shivering, and explained to Amani what was wrong.

“So,” I concluded, “we need to figure out how to get my sweat away from my body.”

We went back to the closet and assessed the other materials.

“Well,” Amani said, “they use a process back on Earth called wicking. It’s when the material that you are wearing pulls sweat away from your body and disperses it. The fabric has little conduits in it that carries sweat through them and out to the top layer of you clothes. The viscose probably wasn’t working because it is plant-based and plants love water.”

“Which materials wick the best?” I asked her.

“I’m pretty sure that the polypropylene is the best material in here for wicking. Why don’t we switch it out for the viscose?”

A few minutes later, I was back in the dry ice chamber. I had a layer of polypropylene on underneath the neoprene. I could feel the difference. I wasn’t much warmer, but I ended up staying in the ice chamber for about seven more minutes than the first time.

“I’m still not warm enough. The wicking helped a lot with the dryness but didn’t warm me up that much. I think we need to make it warmer somehow. The cotton might help with that again.”

“Actually, cotton holds much more moisture than most any other fabric. Even if the polypropylene wicks the sweat, cotton will catch it and hold it close to your skin.”

“Why don’t we try wool instead then? I remember reading somewhere that it also wicks.” I said.

We put the wool in between the neoprene and polypropylene. Once I was inside the chamber, I felt a lot different. The wool was keeping me warm while continuing the wicking process started by the polypropylene, and the neoprene was the barrier between my body heat and the cold outside. I was warm enough that I could probably stay in there for at least forty-five minutes at -50 degrees.

I told Amani how I felt after twenty minutes of standing in the chamber. I was shivering, but the planet we would soon land on was estimated to be -60 degrees at the lowest, which is warmer than the dry ice chamber.

“I think this works pretty well,” I told Amani. “Why don’t we go tell the captain and try to get a seamstress to help us put this together!”

As we walked towards the captain’s quarters, my brain was already going over what I could do to improve my creation. That will have to wait, I told myself. I knew that what I had learned would benefit the new colony on the Vestigo. I had gained more knowledge, which also gave me more experience in textiles. I was on my way to becoming an expert.

Engineer's Note:

The learning tool that my character used was more of a process. She learns how to create something that will give her more experience and knowledge, which will help her keep herself and others safe. The suit that she created is made of neoprene, merino wool, and polypropylene. The material that the two characters were originally going to make the suit out of is viscose. Viscose would not have worked because it is plant-based and absorbs water. The suit is meant to keep the people living on the new planet warm and dry. Neoprene is a synthetic rubber that is much more flexible and resistant to liquids than other rubbers. It is used for wetsuits and drysuits. Wool is a very warm fabric, and it also wicks. Wicking is when fabric pulls sweat away from a person’s body. The wool has little tunnels running through it that drain water from the body. This process is also known as capillary action. The wool creates warmth all while helping the polypropylene wick. Polypropylene is a synthetic fabric that also wicks. Most people use it when they are active, but it also works if someone is just going outside. The reason I chose this tool to help my character learn is because I think that the most important thing about surviving in a new space is having a way to keep the body warm and dry, so the person has the ability to find shelter, food, and other necessary things.

Annotated Bibliography

"How Does Wicking Work?" Wicked Sheets, Wicked Sheets, 4 Aug. 2016, wickedsheets.com/news/how-does-wicking-work-2/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2020.

Kay, Robert, and Yvonne Roach. "Fabrics: Moisture Wicking vs Moisture Absorbing." Robert Owens Undershirts, www.undershirts.co.uk/blogs/research/moistureabsorbing-
vs-moisture-wicking-fabrics. Accessed 1 Feb. 2020.

Masterclass. "What Is Viscose?" Masterclass, 2 July 2019,
www.masterclass.com/articles/fabric-guide-what-is-viscose-understandingviscose-fabric-and-how-viscose-is-made. Accessed 1 Feb. 2020.

"Neoprene: The First Synthetic Rubber." Chlorine Chemistry, American Chemistry Council, Nov. 2004, chlorine.americanchemistry.com/Science-Center/Chlorine-Compound-of-the-Month-Library/Neoprene-The-First-Synthetic-Rubber/.
Accessed 31 Jan. 2020.

"Synthetic Fibers." Wikipedia, 24 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_fiber.
Accessed 31 Jan. 2020.

"What Is the Best Moisture Wicking Material?" Cool Hiking Gear, Amazon Services LLC, coolhikinggear.com/what-is-the-best-moisture-wicking-material. Accessed
1 Feb. 2020.