Tires on the Moon?

[StevoPistolero]

I want my ship to be able to land on the lunar surface, but wouldn't rolling tires get destroyed by environment of space? Would skids be better?

 

[garyw]

No. The space shuttle has tires pressurised with N2 and they cope fine.

On the surface of the moon you'd only use Shuttle landing style tires on a properly prepared surface otherwise you MIGHT go with something similar to the Lunar Rover.

 

[T.Neo]

Please don't tell me you would land on the Moon like an airplane, garyw. You'll start to remind me of a certain someone...

Though I agree, lunar rover style tires would be better for "off road" activities. I would imagine springsteel mesh being more durable than nitrogen filled rubber. :hmm:

 

[garyw]

Please don't tell me you would land on the Moon like an airplane, garyw.

No. I was thinking more of an LPAD style prepared surface with a DG or XR type vehicle landing on it's tires and those tires being N2 pressurised.

 

[Sky Captain]

IMHO tires are superfluous on the Moon since you will do a vertical landing anyway tires or not. So you might as well go with a Apollo LM style landing legs.

 

[Moach]

i don't really see the point of landing on tires on the moon...

there's no chance of a rolling landing (no air, no gliding)... so why not just hover down onto a pad?
gravity there is low enough... you don't even need a lot of power for that...

perhaps, for maintenance reasons, small retractable wheels could raise the craft from the skids (as in some helicopters) to allow pushing into a hangar (on the moon??)


unless you need the ship to be able to land both on earth and moon, like DG does...

then you're better off with a shuttle-like N2 deal :thumbup:

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I don't know, if your approach speed is 100m/s, that could be a significant amount of fuel depending on the ship. Use RCS to adjust your angle to a really shallow one, and let your wheel brakes handle the 100m/s instead of having to use fuel. Dunno how practical that is though.

 

[T.Neo]

There might be a *little* lateral velocity, but not much. Would be easier for LEM style landing legs to deal with on regolith, but I'm not so sure about a solid landing pad.

I don't see why wheels for mobility can't be small metal ones almost like those on a shopping cart, especially if it is only on smooth surfaces and at low velocities.

The only reason to have DG like rubber tires would be if the craft landed directly on both Earth and the Moon.

 

[Linguofreak]

Please don't tell me you would land on the Moon like an airplane, garyw.

Oh yes. I would, though I'd do it with a maglev track rather than tires.

 

[Hielor]

I don't know, if your approach speed is 100m/s, that could be a significant amount of fuel depending on the ship. Use RCS to adjust your angle to a really shallow one, and let your wheel brakes handle the 100m/s instead of having to use fuel. Dunno how practical that is though.

There is an entire thread about how much of a bad idea this is.

 

[T.Neo]

Oh yes. I would, though I'd do it with a maglev track rather than tires.

Like a mass driver in reverse? Mass catcher?

I dunno. Still too much like this for my tastes...

 

[Coolhand]

Oh yes. I would, though I'd do it with a maglev track rather than tires.

now that sounds like fun, with or without tyres.

 

[Hartmann]

Would be better a flexible round mesh than a real tyre, or filled with a foam

 

[Vanguard]

Still, with tires you could shoot for an LDAP style landing, but if you were off by even a little but, perhaps due to a malfunction or whatever, I'd rather roll for a little, rather than just tip over on impact and likely destroy my craft...

Something tells me if you landed with any forward speed at all with a 3 point fixed landing system, you'd be the little piggie in the wooden house knocking on my door, asking for a ride home.