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

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2015 at 6:39:28 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft

 

26-Aug-2015

Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft (video)

American Chemical Society

 

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.

ACS Macro Letters

 

 

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: August 26, 2015

Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft (video)

"Rapid, Puncture-Initiated Healing via Oxygen-Mediated Polymerization"
ACS Macro Letters

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.

The authors acknowledge funding from NASA.

Watch the material heal itself following a bullet puncture.

Youtube ID: JVWFvKxrcLg

In case debris penetrates a spacecraft or station, a new material that can quickly repair itself could save astronauts' lives.

 

 

Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society

 

---