Author Topic: New lunar rover wheel.  (Read 760 times)

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Offline zerodish

New lunar rover wheel.
« on: May 26, 2026, 06:32:08 pm »
As you know I build wheels and I like to build weird wheels. So I am always looking for new ideas. NASA has 3D printed a new wheel out of a nickle allow perhaps Inconel 718. It uses one flange with 24 spokes in a one cross pattern. They look like regular spokes. It should work and have plenty of lateral stiffness with a 7 inch spoke separation. The Soviet Union put a rover on the moon the Lunokhod and it uses wheels with 3 flanges which is not too different than the new wheels. I think the spokes were welded.  https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/moon-rover-wheel-additive-manufacturing

Offline John Nettles

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Re: New lunar rover wheel.
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2026, 09:37:38 pm »
I know absolutely nothing about this kind of material stuff but I would wonder if the extreme temp changes would mess with the spokes.  I mean a 450*F change is pretty big difference and I could see the spokes becoming brittle in the extreme cold. 
Tailwinds (or solar winds), John