An artist’s impression of damage sustained to the Curiosity Rover’s tires in 2013 due to the rocky terrain of Mars. Image credit: NASA
NASA has created a gallery of tire designs for space rovers over the years. From Russian plans for a moon rover in 1973 to shape memory alloys which could be used in future rovers, it explains the trial and error which was required for the development of durable tires and wheels for Martian and Lunar landers. Shape memory alloy tires made of nickel titanium were developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and tested at JPL’s Mars Life Test Facility. The full story includes images of the test runs on rocky terrain similar to that found on Mars.
The feature can be found here.
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