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Your car tires are rubber, and designed to last for a long time at speed. Curiosity's tires are aluminum, and are designed for much less and much slower driving
by olex 10y ago
Your car tires are rubber, and designed to last for a long time at speed. Curiosity's tires are aluminum, and are designed for much less and much slower driving. That seems weird, but the important point is their mass: they only weigh 3 lbs (~1,4kg) per wheel, compared to over 20 lbs for the tire alone (without the rim) on a normal car. Mass budgets are extremely tight on space missions, every pound saved can either go towards more scientific payload or significantly decrease launch costs.
- ianai 10y agoCar tires also have the benefit of a nearby support system. They were looking for wheels that would do the job with 100% certainty of never being able to be replaced.
- valuearb 10y agoAlso rubber would disintegrate given hot/cold cycles and radiation.
- ufmace 10y agoAnd they probably do like 99.9% of their distance over roads in effectively perfect condition.