Self-Healing Inflatable Extraterrestrial Shield (SHIELD)

The team of Astro Terra Corp, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and Virginia Tech (VT) propose the development of a composite polymer over Phase-I and Phase-II into a "Self-Healing Inflatable Extraterrestrial ShieLD (SHIELD) membrane with autonomic self-healing properties and active radiation protection. The multi-layer composite architecture of SHIELD membrane is envisioned to have three layers. The outer layer is fabricated from polyimide and the innermost layer made from a viscoelastic polymer. The middle layer will be a self-healing layer fabricated from ionomeric polymers or PDMS-based ionenes and will be the focus of research activities in this program..The team proposes to fabricate the self-healing layer from two polymers (i) an ionomer (Surlyn) and (ii) a novel PDMS-based polyionene and demonstrate autonomic self-sealing in Phase-I. In addition, this polymer layer will be embedded with magnetoelectric nanoparticles and carbon fibers bundles that are in electrical contact and connected to an external circuit. The combination of magnetoelectric nanoparticles and carbon fibers will provide damage detection, resistive and/or inductive heating based self-healing and electromagnetic radiation protection. The polymer candidate that offers the most advantage in autonomic healing and radiation protection will be pursued for further development into a lightweight inflatable membrane in Phase-II.