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Spacecraft, Heal Thyself

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hopefully-not-hemorrhaging-funding dept.

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."

15 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Ben Rothlisburger there done that by stupidNewbie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sound like the smelly green goo inside of my bicycle tires... or fix-a-flat... same idea just in small capsules embedded

  2. What about the guts? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is the electronics and science instruments that need the care, not the hull. It would probably be cheaper, and perhaps lighter, to have a tough hull than a complex one than can close itself up. Pits and holes on the outside are not where the problems usually are. Unless, perhaps it is some kind of tank or sealed instrument. However, their process appears way too slow to seal that up fast in the vacuum of space. They are not clear on what is being protected and comparing it to the alternatives, such as gels and styrofome-like substances.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:What about the guts? by RodgerTheGreat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How about making use of decentralized computing systems? I'm aware that not all instruments could be "backed-up" with this method, but by distributing a cluster of computers around the vehicle that could assume new functions on-the-fly, you could theoretically absorb a great deal of damage.

      --
      I'm a signature virus. Copy me to your signature so I can replicate, and introduce your own mutations so I can evolve.
    2. Re:What about the guts? by NaeRey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You think? A small hole in a spacecraft can cause incalculable damage. Check Columbia Shuttle. Why it burned? It had some minor scratches on its hull. Temperature got high, and in some 10secs it burned. Yes times are slow, and the material is expensive. But in the long run it would be better (for planetarian trip) as it would have enough time to 'heal' what damage it had during the trip. As for the price, it might get cheaper in the end...

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      http://naerey.switch-case.org
    3. Re:What about the guts? by mulciberxp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the point is, that when a tiny object crashes into the hull at 20,000mph, its going to do damage regardless of what the hull is made of. This concept is to lessen the inevitable damage.

    4. Re:What about the guts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You don't understand Materials Science.

      The idea is to prevent small cracks from developing due to micro imperfections in the material, stresses imposed during flight, small-scale impacts, etc.

      If small cracks form, they can then grow and propagate while in flight possibly leading to catastrophic failure.

      The material is a composite reinforced with fiber "A" (could be carbon fibers, kevlar, whatever). It has specific strength requirements. The idea behind this technology is to fill this composite with a SMALL amount of hollow glass fibers. They would obviously design it such that the small addition of hollow glass fibers do NOT affect the overall strength of the material in a significant way. The addition of these hollow fibers however, allows for some resin to be stored and release during breakage of the fibers thus reacting chemically with the matrix to seal the crack tip and prevent propagation.

      What they would need to do is make sure these hollow glass fibers are properly dispersed in the matrix.

      Keep in mind that you can't just "make" the composite out of the resin that they are storing in the glass fibers. This chemical, whatever it is, would need to react with the matrix and "re-polymerize" sealing the crack tip. By itself, this chemical agent stored in the hollow glass-fibers would not be usefull at all to actually make the composite.

  3. Interesting, but is it really Practical by kfaroo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The key word in the article is "minor". This would work for small abrasions, but would it really be useful? Think of all the accidents in space we have had so far. None of them would have been prevented by this technology.

    1. Re:Interesting, but is it really Practical by Tx · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The key word in the article is "minor". This would work for small abrasions, but would it really be useful? Think of all the accidents in space we have had so far. None of them would have been prevented by this technology.

      We haven't done a lot of long duration spaceflight yet. As the larger-than-expected particles collected by the Stardust mission show, cumulative minor damage could be a major issue for flights lasting years, so I'd say yes, it will be useful.

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      Oh no... it's the future.
  4. Self-Healing Metal by Adeptus_Luminati · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  5. If only we could just heal Slashdot's DUPE problem by Powercntrl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    http://slashdot.org/science/01/02/15/041205.shtml

    And my, what an old dupe it is!

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    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  6. Re:Weight? by Gyga · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The majority would probly be located near the nose as that is what hits the small dust.

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    I don't preview or spellcheck.
  7. More like a self-sealing fuel tanks by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Self-sealing aircraft fuel tanks date back to WWII. This is a comparable level of self-repair: a material that expands to fill and seal gaps.

  8. "Fact?" by LMariachi · · Score: 3, Informative
    citing the fact that we don't glue ourselves together when we nick ourselves

    I'm not sure if they're trying to say that our bodies don't naturally glue themselves back together or that we don't apply glue to cuts, but either way, they're wrong.

  9. Porsche by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 3, Funny
    I remember my brother-in-law talking about the paint on his new Porsche. It had an under-layer, he explained, that oxidized when exposed to air, protecting the metal in some fashion.

    "That's the Germans for you," he said. "Everything they make turns into something else in case there's a war..."

    --

    This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  10. Now in space station sized by Belseth · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Yeah NASA. Could you send up another box of those extra large Band-aids? Damn Russian Statelite nailed our port side again. They really need to start making them bigger. The one meter Band-aids just aren't cutting it. Oh and no more Snoopy ones. The Europeon's are still laughing their asses off about that last batch."