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Spacecraft, Heal Thyself
carpdeus writes "The European Space Agency, citing the fact that we don't glue ourselves together when we nick ourselves, has funded a study toward creating a spacecraft that could fix itself. By replacing a few of the fibers in the resinous material that make up a spacecraft's skin with hollow fibers containing adhesive, the material has a chance to fix itself when it encounters minor damage, much the way our skin does when blood wells up and clots. While admittedly years away, such material makes longer duration missions a possibility."
They'd save themselves a lot of time & money, if they just asked the DND to let them research the makeup of self-healing metal found in Roswell
"I happened to notice when I put that piece of foil in that box, and the damn thing just started unfolding and just flattened out. Then I got to playing with it. I'd fold it, crease it, lay it down and it'd unfold. It's kinda wierd. I couldn't tear it. The color was in between tinfoil and lead foil, about the thickness of lead foil."
From: http://www.qsl.net/w5www/roswell.html
(about 1/2 way down - use CTRL+F)
Adeptus
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.