Vehicles carrying astronauts on interstellar missions need to be able to withstand the tough conditions of space. For example, NASA’s habitable artificial satellite – the International Space Station (ISS) – is the most “heavily shielded craft ever built“, as it should be considering the length of time it spends in low-earth orbit. However, as strong as the ISS is, a small piece of space rock, flying 22,000 miles per hour, is capable of causing extensive damage to the space craft, or any space vehicle for that matter. That’s why researchers from the University of Michigan working with NASA have designed a self healing material that can seal potential hull breaches.
NEW SELF HEALING MATERIAL SERVES AS AN ADDED LAYER OF PROTECTION
According to Extreme Tech, the special material is composed of a type of liquid resin called thiol-ene-trialkylborane, which is squished between two polymer panels to form a strong seal. The resin stays in liquid form, as long as the seal remains unbroken. However, if a space rock were to pierce a section of a spacecraft holding this material, the resin would leak out through the breach to cause the resulting effect, seen in this video here.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SELF HEALING MATERIAL
So how does all this work? If a breach were to hypothetically occur, the vacuum of space would suck out the air inside the spacecraft. When this happens, the oxygenated air on the inside of the vehicle reacts with the self healing material, ultimately causing it to form into a solid and sturdy plug. Although the process seems slow in the video, it is actually incredibly fast, occurring in just a few milliseconds.
The innovative material will firstly serve as a backup defense for space emergencies and hull breaches. However, given its properties, researchers have stated that this technology can be utilized for a host of other practical applications – such as to fix “more earthly structures, including automobiles.”
