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Spacecraft skin 'heals' itself by Will King, New Scientist Space News 23 January 2006
‘A material that could enable spacecraft to automatically "heal" punctures and leaks is being tested in simulated space conditions on Earth. The self-healing spacecraft skin is being developed by Ian Bond and Richard Trask from the University of Bristol, UK, as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) project.
The researchers have taken inspiration from human skin, which heals a cut by exposing blood to air, which congeals to forms a protective scab. The analogy is the vascular system of the human body. The system needs to be completely autonomous.
The researchers have fabricated a composite laminate material containing hundreds of hollow glass filaments thousandths of a millimetre) wide. Half of the filaments are filled with an epoxy polymer or resin and the other half filled with a chemical agent that reacts with the polymer to form a very strong, hard substance. The glass filaments are designed to crack easily when the overall composite material is damaged, which causes both chemicals to leak out and rapidly plug the resulting crack or hole. LINK


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