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Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft

Date:
August 26, 2015
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it's good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. One team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.
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For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it's good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. In the journal ACS Macro Letters, one team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.

It's hard to imagine a place more inhospitable to life than space. Yet humans have managed to travel and live there thanks to meticulous engineering. The International Space Station, equipped with "bumpers" that vaporize debris before it can hit the station walls, is the most heavily-shielded spacecraft ever flown, according to NASA. But should the bumpers fail, a wall breach would allow life-sustaining air to gush out of astronauts' living quarters.

Timothy F. Scott and colleagues wanted to develop a backup defense.

The researchers made a new kind of self-healing material by sandwiching a reactive liquid in between two layers of a solid polymer. When they shot a bullet through it, the liquid quickly reacted with oxygen from the air to form a solid plug in under a second. The researchers say the technology could also apply to other more earthly structures including automobiles.


Story Source:

Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Scott R. Zavada, Nicholas R. McHardy, Keith L. Gordon, Timothy F. Scott. Rapid, Puncture-Initiated Healing via Oxygen-Mediated Polymerization. ACS Macro Letters, 2015; 4 (8): 819 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00315

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113621.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2015, August 26). Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113621.htm
American Chemical Society. "Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113621.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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