ARES — Assisted Rapid Emergency Sealant System is a crew-assisted emergency repair system for rapidly mitigating small hull breaches in spacecraft, orbital habitats, pressurized rovers, aircraft, and other critical enclosures. ARES may receive breach-location and severity data from a structural impact and leak detection system such as DSILS, but it is not dependent on any single detection platform. It can also be used with other acoustic, pressure-decay, optical, ultrasonic, crew-observed, or vehicle-integrated leak localization systems.

In a spacecraft implementation, the detection or localization system identifies the affected hull zone and directs the crew member to the closest interior access panel. Using stored knowledge of the vehicle’s construction at that location, together with measured or estimated leak severity, ARES recommends the proper SealCap patch size and material type. SealCap patches may be optimized for aluminum alloys, composites, glass, cermets, or other pressure-boundary materials.

The selected SealCap patch is mounted onto the end effector of a flexible, steerable Guided SealCap Applicator. The applicator includes illumination, optical viewing, two-axis steering from a handle, a patch retention mechanism, and a metered adhesive or sealant release system. The applicator is inserted through the access opening and maneuvered behind interior structures toward the hull breach.

The SealCap patch is the key innovation. It has a hollow annular geometry that fits around the applicator’s viewing tip, allowing the crew member to see through the center of the patch while positioning it. This keeps the breach visible until the patch is precisely centered over the leak. Once centered, the patch is placed against the hull. Escaping cabin air helps draw the patch against the sealing surface, improving initial seating.

After placement, the crew member activates a handle control that releases a measured quantity of adhesive or sealant into the annular cavity of the SealCap patch. The sealant fills the patch interface and may obscure the original breach, but by that point the patch has already been visually aligned. The applicator is then withdrawn, leaving the patch bonded over the damaged area. The same detection or monitoring system can then verify reduced leak rate or pressure loss.

ARES turns emergency hull patching from an improvised manual task into a guided, repeatable, material-aware repair process. It reduces crew search time, lowers pressure loss, improves repair consistency, and increases survivability after small punctures or localized leaks. Although first described for spacecraft and habitats, the same approach could apply to aircraft, pressure vessels, marine compartments, and hazardous-material containment systems.