Description: Future space exploration projects will expose system components (such as cryogenic systems) to extreme conditions and to a higher number of pressure and temperature cycles, due to long missions and reusable launch vehicle (RLV) designs. High performance materials, such as low-density ceramics, foams, aerogels, composites, metals, and multi-layer insulations (MLI) will be increasingly used. These materials, however, often have poor mechanical strength and damage-tolerance, and are also difficult to bond to each other, due to the extreme operating temperature and pressure cycles and the mismatch between their thermal (expansion) and mechanical properties. The combination of these drawbacks resulted in the catastrophic detachment of foam insulation from the external tank (ET) in Shuttle Columbia, mission STS-107. There is a need for damage-tolerant, "forgiving" and multifunctional adhesive technologies for integrating dissimilar materials (such as cryogenic pressurized vessels to insulations), and ensuring reliable, integrated lightweight system designs. To address this need, Applied Analytic Research Inc. has designed innovative cost-effective Isolating Adhesives that are multifunctional, Bond, isolate and protect dissmilar adherends in the same time.

Benefits: As a replacement of mechanical or ordinary adhesive attachment for industrial components exposed to thermal and mechanical stress cycles, such as exhaust systems for hot gases in cars or reactors; or medical, pharmaceutical or laboratory assemblies exposed to periodic cryogenic conditions, such as cryogenic mills or testing equipment

Since the innovative damage-tolerant isolating adhesive is designed with commercially available building blocks, it will provide a cost-effective and easy-to-apply bonding mechanism between various aerospace structures and materials in space exploration and transportation missions such as orbit transfer vehicles, space power systems, spaceports, spacesuits, lunar habitation systems, etc. A major application is in re-usable launch vehicles (RLV) that have many components with dissimilar mechanical and thermal properties subjected to repeated thermal and mechanical cycles. These components will be difficult to spot-bond via mechanical joints due to interfacial stresses caused by operational cycles. An example is bonding thermal protection system (TPS) and Cryo-insulation materials in integrated insulation designs used for future spacecraft.