Future Spaceships Being Developed to Heal Themselves
“At oil approaching $130 a barrel, if you can strip weight off, you could save money,” said researcher Ian Bond, a materials scientist at the University of Bristol in England.
Nature has always been the finest of teachers, and what better knowledge to have than to mimic her special healing processes for NASA’s damaged aircraft? By using Mother Nature’s methods, breakthroughs in this newly developing process could be something similar to using resin—oozing into damaged spacecraft cracks on demand.
A natural process such as this not only would be simple, but cost effective as it would remove weight from the spacecraft for repairs in addition to having safe spacecraft and airplanes, reduce global warming through less gas emissions. So far, thousands of dollars have gone into research for damage resistant materials for NASA and their aircraft, but nothing has been developed to also relieve weight.
What is being developed to solve this problem are hollow fibers filled with epoxy resin and hardener which can be placed in any aircraft structure location—nose, tailfin, fuselage, or wings. And when damage occurs and repair is necessary, the resin could seep out by command to seal any damaged cracks or holes. What has been found is that the damaged material, with the resin repair, will recover approximately 80-90 percent of the original strength—which allows the area to not only heal but function.
Another way for the resin to be used is through the addition of a colorful dye mixed with the repaired part for the repaired area to be easily spotted by ground inspectors with the usage of ultraviolet light. “… this way, the system will ‘complement rather than replace conventional inspection and maintenance routines, which can readily pick up larger-scale damage, caused by a bird strike, for example,’ Bond said.” (LiveScience, 2008)
This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
