Who would have thought, one day, that a tire company would be among the first to lay the wheels on the lunar floor. In fact, when you think about it, there is a certain logic to it: after all, vehicles, however space-based, must also roll on the ground!
In collaboration with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Japanese equivalent of NASA, and Toyota Motors, Bridgestone will launch an assault on the lunar planet. Its mission: to research the performance needs of tires intended for use on mobile vehicles under spatial pressure (gravity and oxygen are not acting the same, it is necessary to change the approach) to help these vehicles to establish a better contact with the surface of the moon.
Extreme conditions
To do this, with JAXA, Bridgestone will first observe the results of previous contacts between the rovers and the lunar surface and serve as a technical partner to the Toyota rover project. Among the missions, it is necessary to develop an elastic wheel to support the weight, the acceleration and the braking of the rover, to minimize shock absorption and improve maneuverability, while allowing it to travel more than 10,000 km on the lunar surface.
The challenge is important: the materials react differently on the lunar floor, the temperature is quite different and the cold can damage the structure of the wheel. Another detail, the material used must maintain its elasticity to span the rocks, but ensure enough grip not to slip on these rocks.
For the moment, the date of participation of a possible rover of this nature to go to the moon is not yet determined. Japan has never sent a ship directly to the moon, and the space program of this country does not provide for sending for several years.
But imagine if your next tires were developed on the moon?
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Manned, pressurized rover for lunar surface mobility and exploration. Courtesy of Toyota Motor Corporation
