As NASA prepares for long-duration Moon and Mars missions, scientists are reinventing space tyres using smart metals and biomimicry to withstand cosmic extremes.
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| First Use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle – July 31, 1971 - Image: NASA |
Tech Desk — May 13, 2025:
As humanity prepares to return to the Moon and set foot on Mars, one problem has engineers scrambling to innovate: how to prevent a flat tyre in outer space. In an era when a stranded rover could mean millions lost and years of delay, tyre design is taking centre stage in the new space race.
“A puncture is not an option,” said Florent Menegaux, CEO of French tyre giant Michelin, in a recent BBC feature by Padraig Belton. The unforgiving terrains of the Moon and Mars demand a complete rethinking of what a wheel should be—because there’s no roadside assistance 225 million kilometres away.
The damage suffered by NASA’s unmanned Curiosity rover on Mars is a cautionary tale. Just a year after landing in 2012, its aluminium wheels were shredded by Martian rocks. Now, as NASA’s Artemis program eyes a 2027 lunar return and an ambitious exploration of the Moon’s south pole starting with Artemis V in 2030, engineers must prepare for decades-long rover operations. Unlike Apollo astronauts, who drove no more than 40 kilometres, the next generation will cover up to 10,000 km over 10 years.
“This isn’t a week-long mission. We’re designing tyres for decades of use,” said Sylvain Barthet, who leads Michelin’s lunar airless wheel programme in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Tyres must survive not just sharp rocks, but temperatures plummeting below -230°C at the lunar poles—just shy of absolute zero, where even atoms freeze in place.
That presents a materials science nightmare. “Without atom motion, materials can't deform and recover,” explained Dr Santo Padula, a materials scientist at NASA’s John Glenn Research Center in Ohio. Without that elasticity, wheels lose shape and efficiency—critical in conserving energy on space missions.
Solutions vary dramatically. Michelin leans toward advanced plastics designed for long-term performance. Bridgestone, taking inspiration from camel footpads, developed a flexible metal-spoke wheel with a felt-like tread that distributes weight across soft lunar soil. Meanwhile, The Smart Tire Company, led by Earl Patrick Cole, is pioneering tyres made from nitinol, a superelastic nickel-titanium alloy that acts like rubber but returns to form every time. “It bends and always comes back. It’s one of the craziest materials you'll ever see,” Cole told the BBC.
NASA will evaluate proposals from these tyre innovators—Michelin, Bridgestone, and others like Venturi Astrolab—this month at the John Glenn Center. It may select a single design or combine elements from several.
Testing is already underway on Earth. Michelin is trialling wheels on volcanic terrain near Clermont-Ferrand, chosen for its powdery similarity to lunar soil. Bridgestone is running its prototypes on Japan’s Tottori Sand Dunes. ESA is also considering its own rover, potentially expanding Europe’s role in extraterrestrial mobility.
The innovations could have Earth-based benefits too. Cole, who developed nitinol tyres during his PhD at the University of Southern California, plans to launch nickel-titanium bicycle tyres this year—durable, flat-proof, and priced at $150. Future applications could extend to motorbikes in regions with rugged roads.
Still, Cole’s heart remains among the stars. “So, I can tell my kids, look up there on the Moon,” he said. “Daddy’s tyres are up there.”