NASA invents indestructible tyres that never get flat

In order to enhance rough transportation on space, NASA has created an innovative tyre that is almost indestructible and can never get flat.

The general air-filled rubber tyres are used for transportation in space, however, due to certain obvious conditions, the tyres usually used to pop flat. NASA then started using metal wheels with steel springs for its moon buggy, but they too, encountered problems when the steel springs started to degrade and deform with time.

To overcome such problems, NASA took the concept of metal spring wheels but, with some modern materials engineering. The new metal spring wheels made using nickel-titanium alloy instead of steel, were created by NASA’s material engineers to advance transport over various rough and extraterrestrial terrains.

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Due to the new material used, when the tyre is stressed, the atoms re-arrange themselves instead of deforming and losing their shape. The procedure is called the ‘shape memory alloy’, which means that the tyre contains the ability to get deformed virtually limitlessly and immediately gets back to its original shape, reported BGR.

Business Insider reported, materials scientist Santo Padula said, “We [can] actually deform this all the way down to the axle and have it return to shape, which we could never even contemplate in a conventional-metal system.”

“The alloy, at the temperatures we're seeing, is always in its ‘return to my original shape’ mode. So after you deform it, it pops back to its original crystal structure,” said mechanical systems expert, Phillip Abel.

Though the tyres are meant to be used in outer-space, it can also be used on Earth. If coated with higher-friction material, the tyre can get more grips with no chance to get flat.

“I could definitely see it being used for any application where you're driving off-road, and the risk of a puncture and a flat is a big deal, like with a military vehicle. But I would love to see this technology branching off to passenger vehicles,” exclaimed engineer Colin Creager.