The present trend of evolution of space systems is oriented versus enhanced integration of functions enabling increased independence from the earth (in particular in case of robotic systems) and enlarged operative envelop in terms of mission’s scope. One of the major contributions for the realization of the new generation of space systems facing such an increased performances demand is the implementation of self-diagnosis (and possibly autonomous troubleshooting and problem solving) based on an efficient health management system simulating basic schemes taken from the biological systems in a biomimic effort.

One of the elements of such a health management system should consist of sensing coatings compatible with the harsh space environment and placed amongst the system’s surface and the external environment in a simulation of the function of the skin and other sensorial elements of the biological beings.

The objective is the development of  prototypes of space certified sensing coatings, distributed sensing devices and/or arrays.
The aim is to replicate the function of the biological skin and other sensorial elements as the interface with the external environment. Such a biomimetic approach is considered the only viable for a safe monitoring of complex systems acting in harsh environment (such as reusable launch vehicles or robots for space exploration). The final objective is the complete re-built of the operating conditions of a remote system enabling a recovery strategy in case of non-nominal occurrences.

The layers constituting the coating have to be thin films in order not to get involved in the structural load path, the skin shall be flexible enough to follow the deformation of the material covered realizing a network of diffused sensors measuring temperature, pressure, strain, atmosphere’s peculiarities (such as oxygen content) to be processed, chronologically ordered to realize trends and sent to the remote data recovery unit.
The sensing schema here summarized could be the activating and controlling mean for self healing provisions (realizing therefore further biomimic mechanisms).