News Airless tires for space vehicles?

[ar81]

It should be very annoying to have a flat tire in space rovers. :lol:
This could be the solution.
Airless tires

Comments? Opinions?

 

[Moach]

those are very cool!

are they lighter or heavier than conventional tires?

 

[Loru]

Space rovers have airless tires.
Look at Spirit and Opportunity or Lunohod. Ok - they're not as elastic as classic tyre but Apollo Lunar Rover had similar design. Just instead of rubber it had "metal wire" tubes.

 

[N_Molson]

Sure, some advances could be done !

Gene Cernan still holds the extraterrestrial land speed record with 18 km/h (5 m/s)

 

[statickid]

i don't think any space vehicle has had pneumatic tires. they are all METAL:headbang:

 

[TSPenguin]

The big problem with tires that need to work on multiple bodies is the differing gravity. A way to adjust the elasticity of the tire itself would probably safe a lot of weight in (more or less needed) suspension.

 

[Andy44]

Well, as far as I know, no vehicle has ever been designed to drive in more than one gravity field, each has been custom-made for its intended use. Instead of designing a tire that can be adapted for different worlds, just build a different one for each planet. It's only going one way. I think it's more important to think about the various types of terrain the vehicle will have to drive on. Can the tire handle both sand and rock?

 

[T.Neo]

Well all wheeled vehicles might be "going one way" today, that might not be the case in future, although this would probably apply with vehicle designs and not individual vehicles. It's useful to have a single design that with minor alterations can work on multiple planets.

As for tires, what differing effect does gravity really have? And are MER-style tires effective in higher velocity vehicles? AFAIK their top speed is relatively low.

 

[emin2004]

forward to 2017 and your wish of the airless tire has been granted