NASA’S new chainmail tires can transform its shape and move freely over rocky terrain

Image credit : pixabay

Just imagine yourself in space moving around in one of NASA’s Rovers and the suddenly you have a flat tire, and to make matters worse it’s not even possible to send a spare wheel to mars and have it fixed.

Well, for that NASA has found a solution. NASA has developed chainmail tires which are capable of remembering their original shape when they climb a sharp surface. This tires can regain their original shape when they experience a deformation.

The usefulness of this new innovation is to allow space explorers to easily navigate planets that have a very rocky terrain. Places like the moon and mars for instance that have very rocky terrain can be traversed very easily, without losing too many tires.

What are chainmail tires?

Chainmail tires are made from stoichiometric nickel-titanium, the unique properties of this alloy allows it to accommodate deformation. Chainmail tires are spring like tires, with metals delicately woven together into a shape that allows it to rollover surfaces, including very rocky ones.

Nickel-titanium also known as Nitinol consists of two metals: Nickel and titanium with both of them present in roughly the same percentages. The alloy exhibits two properties, which are shape memory and superelasticity.

Shape memory is the property that allows the alloy to regain its original shape after undergoing a deformation. While superelasticity is a reversible response to an applied stress. This 2 basic properties allow the alloy to recover its original shape after it goes through stress (like climbing on sharp stones). In the case of superelasticity no heating is needed to bring the alloy back to its original shape.
According to NASA these tires can handle heavier payloads and higher speeds than conventional tires, thereby allowing more areas of space to be explored.

In conclusion

With this revolutionary new technology coming into play, flat tires in space will no longer be of any concern. Space Rovers in future can traverse very rocky planets at higher speeds, and cover more areas which will lead to more discoveries in space. Apart from space exploration, I believe that these tires can also be here on earth and not just space. Cars can actually use these tires especially in countries with very bad road networks. With a technology like this moving rovers who is to say that scientists might not stumble on life on other planets.

If you would like to know more or view pictures of chainmail tires please follow the links in the further reading section below

Further reading

• Chainmail tires re-invent the wheel to get future NASA rovers rolling
• NASA created a new chainmail tire that can transform its shape
• NASA created a new chainmail tire that can transform its shape
• Nickel titanium
• Pseudoelasticity

Thanks for reading this article, if you enjoyed it, head over to the SteemSTEM community for more discussions on science. Please support me by upvoting, commenting, resteeming and follow me @leczy