There are a few things that every kid knows are cool. These things are rockets, dinosaurs, swords, knights, fast cars, castles, and space, among other things. So until NASA decides to fly a dinosaur on a rocket to the moon, put him in a castle, and then a knight goes up there to fight him with a sword, in a fast car, (or a Mario game comes out like that) I might have one of the coolest new things to come out recently.
Chainmail Tires!
Yes, you read that right. NASA has decided going to other planets isn't quite cool enough. Now they're going to strap chainmail onto their badass rover's tires. Why fight a space dragon with a sword, when you can just run it over?
All hyperbole aside, the use of metal mesh goes all the way back to the Russian Lunokhod, which used wire mesh wheels with spokes, and metal cleats for traction.
Image copyright GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or later
(source)
The Lunar Roving Vehicle, which was the last vehicle to visit the moon, used a flexible wire mesh on it's wheels, and stiff inner frames. You likely remember watching videos of Lunar Astronauts tooling around on the surface of the moon in the Lunar Rover.
Nasa invented the Spring Tire all the way back in the mid-2000's, thanks to a collaboration between NASA Glenn engineer Vivake Asnani, and Goodyear. The spring tire uses several hungred coiled steel wires woven into a mesh, which act, as the name implies, as a spring. These tires allow vehicles to support heavy loads and traverse rugged terrain.
When testing the Spring Tire for more modern use, NASA engineers experienced a problem of deformation of the spring steel when traversing rocks. Thanks to a serendipitous moment, NASA engineer Colin Creager brought materials scientist Santo Padula in to see his lab, and he happened to be researching just the material that they needed. The two worked together to create a new version of the Spring Tire made with a shape metal alloy, and managed to create something truely awesome.
NASA's new badass tires are made using a stoichiometric nickel-titanium alloy, woven into interlocking coil springs. This nickel titanium is what is known as a shape memory alloy. This means that the metal can deform a lot more than standard metals, and reform into the shape that it was originally molded to be. This allows the alloy to deform over 30 times greater than steel mesh, all the way to the wheel hub, and spring back to it's original shape!
NASA hopes that these tires are just what their future rovers need to conquer the regolith of the Moon, Mars, and perhaps beyond. If you remember, the Curiosity rover's aluminum wheels suffered quite extensive damage due to the harsh terrain of Mars. These new wheels are far more durable, and might just be what NASA needs to hold up against the sharp Lunar regolith! While Lunar regolith is almost like powder, without any atmosphere to wear it down, it's likely closer to glass powder than sand.
Here's hoping NASA's future inventions are just as awesome!
Sources:
NASA Reinvents the Wheel With Magic Chainmail Tires For the Moon, Mars, and Beyond -Kyle Cheromcha
The Mystery of Moon Dust - Kate Greene
NASA.gov/specials/wheels/