Tyres On Mars!
Four decades ago, when the Moon rover travelled across the surface of the moon, it did so on tyres developed by Goodyear. The Mars Curiosity rover on the other hand, is fitted with tyres built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Science Laboratory. What’s more, they are printing Morse Code across the surface of the red planet!
The six tyres are made of 100 % aluminium and each weighs about 15 – 20 lbs. The interior spokes and centre hubs have both strength and flexibility as they are made out of titanium. The tyres feature a zig zag style tread which has been designed to help the rover climb out of any craters it might encounter. However, the treads also features a series of notches that spell out the letters ‘JPL’ in Morse Code. JPL stands for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
There is a reason for this graffiti style tagging of the planet’s surface. The rover uses the marks as part of its rover’s visual odometry system which lets it estimate changes in position over time. The system is only really useful if you’re driving without any other vehicles around – if you tried to fit a similar system to your standard car tyres, the marks would be obliterated by the car behind you!