The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have developed a non-pneumatic tire for large, long-range space vehicles that will be used during missions to the lunar surface. Consisting of 800 load-bearing springs, the “spring tire” was designed for use on heavier vehicles traveling much greater distances than the wire mesh tire previously used on the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).
– When designing the tire, we had to take into account the need to increase load capacity and extend its service life, which is why we made fundamental changes to the original lunar tire concept. The result of the work of the Goodyear and NASA engineering team is an innovative, yet simple in its design, network of interconnected springs that works perfectly in such an application. Looking at the finished tire, its design seems almost obvious, as is usually the case with breakthrough inventions – said Vivake Asnani, NASA’s lead engineer at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
The “spring tire” was mounted on NASA’s Lunar Electric Rover test vehicle and tested at the Johnson Space Center’s “Rock Yard” in Houston.
– This tire is extremely durable and energy-efficient. Thanks to its spring design, it conforms to the terrain, providing excellent traction. All the energy put into deforming the springs is recovered when the springs return to their original shape. Furthermore, the tire does not heat up like normal tires – said Jim Benzing, lead project engineer for innovation at Goodyear.
Creating the original tire for the Apollo lunar missions and the new “spring tire” was a key element in the success of the space mission, because pneumatic tires used on Earth do not perform well on the Moon. The rubber used to produce them changes its parameters significantly in the lunar environment, where the temperature difference between shaded areas and those exposed to direct sunlight reaches several hundred degrees. Additionally, solar radiation unfiltered by an atmosphere leads to damage to the material from which the tire is made.
A strong impact that could lead to a puncture of a pneumatic tire and loss of pressure only causes damage to one of the 800 load-bearing springs. In addition, the tire is rigid and flexible enough that vehicles equipped with it can overcome obstacles at high speeds.
Goodyear is one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world. In Poland, the company offers tires under brands such as: Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Sava, and Dębica. It is also the majority shareholder of Firmy Oponiarskiej Dębica SA.