1 00:00:05,405 --> 00:00:08,006 DAISY: Your body is an amazing thing... 2 00:00:08,008 --> 00:00:12,576 You can get scraped, cut, or worse... 3 00:00:12,578 --> 00:00:16,046 the human body has the ability to bounce right back... 4 00:00:16,048 --> 00:00:20,451 other than a little scar tissue, you are as good as new. 5 00:00:20,453 --> 00:00:25,790 NASA is designing organic structural material that has that same ability. 6 00:00:25,791 --> 00:00:29,460 NASA’s self healing material is next... 7 00:00:29,461 --> 00:00:33,598 On Real World. [music] 8 00:00:39,706 --> 00:00:43,561 DAISY: Imagine a military plane flying a dangerous mission. 9 00:00:43,630 --> 00:00:47,278 Just a bit of enemy fire could bring that mission down... 10 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,648 Or think of a space craft, exploring new worlds... 11 00:00:50,650 --> 00:00:54,218 A tiny bit of space debris could cause the crew to 12 00:00:54,220 --> 00:00:58,270 explore ways to stay alive, instead of new frontiers... 13 00:00:58,271 --> 00:01:02,226 But what if there was a way to prevent punctures in airplanes and space craft... 14 00:01:02,228 --> 00:01:07,131 NASA’s looking at a way, not to prevent them, but to fix them, immediately. 15 00:01:07,133 --> 00:01:11,683 By developing a self healing material, in a NASA Lab, 16 00:01:11,685 --> 00:01:14,405 the agency is hoping to negate some of the biggest 17 00:01:14,406 --> 00:01:16,575 dangers of air and space travel. 18 00:01:16,576 --> 00:01:20,311 MIA SIOCHI: The kind of self healing material that we’re looking at is puncture healing. 19 00:01:20,313 --> 00:01:23,915 DAISY: Mia Siochi is the Acting Head for the Advanced Materials 20 00:01:23,916 --> 00:01:27,151 and Processing branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center. 21 00:01:27,153 --> 00:01:30,455 MIA: The way we test it is actually we shoot a bullet through it. 22 00:01:30,456 --> 00:01:33,658 And what we’re looking for is once the bullet penetrates, 23 00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:36,361 that it will close immediately, right back behind it. 24 00:01:36,363 --> 00:01:42,000 What happens is the polymer inherently flows as the bullet penetrates. 25 00:01:42,001 --> 00:01:44,936 And the reason is as the bullet goes in, it actually 26 00:01:44,938 --> 00:01:48,673 raises the temperature around the region where it goes in. 27 00:01:48,675 --> 00:01:51,776 DAISY: Polymers are substances made of many small molecules 28 00:01:51,778 --> 00:01:56,146 joined together to make long chains. And in a NASA chemistry lab, 29 00:01:56,148 --> 00:01:58,750 they have come up with a polymer that will flow at the 30 00:01:58,751 --> 00:02:02,120 temperature the structure will be at as penetration occurs. 31 00:02:02,121 --> 00:02:06,123 MIA: As the bullet penetrates, it pulls a little bit of the material with it. 32 00:02:06,125 --> 00:02:10,395 But then, as it leaves, then the material will snap back. 33 00:02:10,463 --> 00:02:13,691 And when it snaps back, it actually seals. 34 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,501 DAISY: This is pretty amazing stuff... 35 00:02:16,570 --> 00:02:20,138 it stands up to punctures... and a whole lot more. 36 00:02:23,943 --> 00:02:26,173 This is the result... 37 00:02:26,175 --> 00:02:30,615 You can see where the saw cut through, but the structural integrity remains intact. 38 00:02:30,683 --> 00:02:34,628 MIA: We have looked at this material for like a fuel tank application, for example, 39 00:02:34,696 --> 00:02:37,388 where you shoot at it, and there’s liquid in a container, 40 00:02:37,456 --> 00:02:39,733 and it actually works. 41 00:02:39,735 --> 00:02:43,595 So it was gratifying to see that when we actually test this material in the field, 42 00:02:43,596 --> 00:02:46,753 you can see the bullet penetrating, here, and the 43 00:02:46,755 --> 00:02:49,935 material pops out and then goes back in. 44 00:02:49,936 --> 00:02:54,338 We’ve done this from the side and also from the front. 45 00:02:54,340 --> 00:02:57,675 The camera’s fast enough to pick up the bullet going through 46 00:02:57,676 --> 00:03:01,278 and there’s a shock wave that accompanies the healing of the material. 47 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,750 DAISY: Similar material was already available... 48 00:03:04,751 --> 00:03:08,353 Used in golf balls and targets at shooting ranges, 49 00:03:08,355 --> 00:03:11,155 it had many of the qualities scientists were looking for... 50 00:03:11,156 --> 00:03:13,725 but not all of the qualities... 51 00:03:13,726 --> 00:03:16,250 KEITH GODON: The material, surlyn, it’s self healing, 52 00:03:16,251 --> 00:03:19,798 but one of the properties it doesn’t have is that it’s not structural load bearing. 53 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,966 DAISY: Keith Gordon is a research materials engineer 54 00:03:22,968 --> 00:03:25,636 here at NASA Langley Research Center 55 00:03:25,638 --> 00:03:28,140 KEITH: What we want to do is we want to make a material 56 00:03:28,141 --> 00:03:32,310 that has self healing properties, but we want to increase it, 57 00:03:32,311 --> 00:03:35,413 from the mechanical properties or the structural load bearing properties. 58 00:03:35,415 --> 00:03:37,881 DAISY: So Keith and his colleagues 59 00:03:37,883 --> 00:03:40,785 set forth to make a material that could self heal 60 00:03:40,786 --> 00:03:44,221 and have the structural integrity needed for NASA applications. 61 00:03:44,223 --> 00:03:47,081 They needed to develop a material 62 00:03:47,083 --> 00:03:51,530 that had more tensile strength than previous self healing materials. 63 00:03:51,531 --> 00:03:54,065 Tensile strength is an important factor 64 00:03:54,066 --> 00:03:56,601 in determining a material’s load bearing ability. 65 00:03:56,603 --> 00:03:59,738 It is a measurement of the stress at which a material 66 00:03:59,740 --> 00:04:02,140 breaks or permanently deforms. 67 00:04:02,141 --> 00:04:05,743 Stress equals load divided by area. 68 00:04:05,745 --> 00:04:09,113 And that was just one of the qualities they had to account for. 69 00:04:09,115 --> 00:04:11,616 KEITH: That’s part of the chemistry, all of the 70 00:04:11,618 --> 00:04:14,085 brainstorming in terms of the chemistry involved. 71 00:04:14,086 --> 00:04:17,621 We need a material that is easily process-able. 72 00:04:17,623 --> 00:04:20,676 To make a polymer you have to start with monomers, 73 00:04:20,678 --> 00:04:23,928 small molecules, in hopes to making a large molecule. 74 00:04:23,930 --> 00:04:26,698 And so what we have here, is we have the monomers 75 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:29,533 dissolving right now, we have another monomer 76 00:04:29,535 --> 00:04:32,203 that we’re going to add that’s going to initiate the reaction. 77 00:04:32,205 --> 00:04:35,773 What we hope to have after about 12 hours, 78 00:04:35,775 --> 00:04:38,276 polymerization time, is a polymer. 79 00:04:38,278 --> 00:04:41,178 What we’re going to do from that point is isolate the polymer, 80 00:04:41,180 --> 00:04:46,155 so it’s going to go from a liquid type of appearance, now, 81 00:04:46,156 --> 00:04:49,320 to a powder. We’re going to take the polymer powder, 82 00:04:49,321 --> 00:04:51,656 and then we’re going to place it inside of a mold, 83 00:04:51,658 --> 00:04:54,391 press it, and we’ll have our 3 x 3 panel. 84 00:04:54,393 --> 00:04:57,195 DAISY: The work in the lab has produced a product 85 00:04:57,196 --> 00:05:00,365 that will be beneficial for future space exploration. 86 00:05:00,366 --> 00:05:04,101 MIA: For NASA applications, what we’re looking at 87 00:05:04,103 --> 00:05:08,106 is space structures for example, that self heal. 88 00:05:08,108 --> 00:05:12,076 Habitats for example and so what we’re interested in 89 00:05:12,078 --> 00:05:16,548 is that if there’s an event where it gets hit by a micrometeoroid, 90 00:05:16,550 --> 00:05:18,950 we can retain the pressure in the habitat. 91 00:05:18,951 --> 00:05:23,488 And we’ve actually tested this material at close to micrometeoroid velocities. 92 00:05:23,490 --> 00:05:28,526 Up to 5 kilometers per second and it does close back up. 93 00:05:28,528 --> 00:05:32,263 DAISY: So work in the lab will continue, with the goal 94 00:05:32,265 --> 00:05:36,266 to make NASA’s future space exploration as safe as it can be. 95 00:05:38,143 --> 00:05:44,575 Keep track of this and all of NASA’s exploration missions at www.NASA.gov. 96 00:05:47,213 --> 00:05:51,518 ? [music] ?