It’s now around five years since Bridgestone Corporation announced it was developing tyres for a future Japanese mission to the Moon. The company has now presented its latest generation lunar rover tyre, which features “improved performance through research and development.” Bridgestone is showing this concept tyre at the 39th Space Symposium, which takes place in the USA between 8 and 11 April 2024.
A name still unfamiliar to many, The Smart Tire Company (STC) is commercialising NASA’s non-pneumatic tyre technology. It is working with vehicle manufacturers to produce shape memory alloy tyres for cars and has launched a second generation of its airless bicycle tyre. In addition to developing products for use here on Earth, STC intends to send tyres to the Moon as part of NASA’s Project Artemis.
This week marks the 53rd anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the surface of the Moon, a date of particular significance for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Goodyear supplied a number of essential components for this history-making mission and later developed non-pneumatic tyres for the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle. The tyre maker is once again looking spacewards and is developing tyres for a lunar vehicle that in future may extend commercialism to the Earth’s rocky satellite.
One giant leap for Michelin. The French tyre maker has taken on the challenge to develop an airless tyre to equip the future Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV). It is working on this project in conjunction with the team formed by Northrop Grumman within the framework of a tender from NASA last November. The aim for the Michelin R&D teams is to make a tyre capable of resisting the extreme conditions at the lunar pole in order to explore the lunar surface and allow a sustainable presence on the Moon in 2025, and ultimately on Mars.
Goodyear is an old hand at the space business, but it’s been decades since it has worked on anything that’s entered the ‘final frontier’. That’ll change next week with the expected launch of the SpaceX CRS-18 on 21 July. When it blasts off towards the International Space Station (ISS) it’ll carry a Goodyear experiment on board. Success will lead to better-performing tyres in future.
When you only have one-sixth the gravity you’re accustomed to, you need a tyre that makes good contact with the surface. This is why Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corporation have asked Bridgestone to contribute its expertise to their new joint project. The tyre maker will draw upon its knowledge of tyre contact patches and develop an elastic wheel that will support the weight, acceleration and braking of the lunar rover that JAXA and Toyota intend to build.
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