GOODYEAR

Goodyear in space: company to develop airless tires for lunar rovers with long range and long lifespan

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which already has experience building a lunar rover, joined the project to develop an electric lunar rover for future missions. Goodyear will focus on airless tires for lunar rovers with long range and long service life. The acquired experience will be fully applied in the production of tires for conventional land road transport.

As you know, future lunar electric vehicles in the form of a light open vehicle and pressurized cabin transport under contract with NASA are being developed by Lockheed Martin in partnership with General Motors. Goodyear has joined this group with the intention of realizing its practical and scientific potential in developing tires in space. First are the airless tires that Goodyear already manufactures for a number of land vehicles.

Tire operation on the Moon will be associated with operation in the wider temperature range of 126°C to -173°C. Fifty years ago, Goodyear worked with NASA using their designs and technologies on several Apollo missions. Now the company's expertise will be incorporated into the Artemis missions to ensure the permanent presence of man on the moon. And if the lunar transport on the Apollo missions was used for only a few days and did not travel more than 7 km from the base, the transport for a permanent stay will have to work for years with a range of many, many kilometers. This sets stringent requirements for the material part of the lunar rovers, which Goodyear promises to deal with.

Image source: Goodyear