Self Healing Materials In Satellites

Self-healing materials are man-made or synthetically manufactured substances with the ability to naturally repair damages to themselves without the need for external diagnostic or human involvement. Although polymers and elastomers are the most popular types of self-healing materials, self-healing encompasses all classes of materials, including ceramics, metals, and cementitious materials.

A major challenge for space missions is material selection as space materials are subjected to wear and structural damage, especially when facing extreme environmental conditions.

The techniques for healing differ from the material’s intrinsic repair to the addition of a repair agent enclosed in a microscopic channel. Most of the approaches that are described in the literature regarding self-healing materials can be applied to make “self-healing” coatings, including microencapsulation and the introduction of reversible physical bonds such as ionomers, hydrogen bonding, and chemical bonds (Diels-Alder chemistry). The most popular method for creating self-healing coatings is microencapsulation.