Blog #3

NASA has reinvented the wheel for the Mars rovers. The engineers established that there was problems with the wheel that was on the Mars rovers. One problem was weight, because an ideal wheel for going over tough terrain weighs too much and the aluminium wheel being used on the pre-existing rovers was too thin since it was being damaged. Also, rubber couldn't have been used since the low temperature on Mars would freeze and shatter the wheels. NASA partnered with Good Year and created a wheel using Nitinol, which is a shape memory alloy. It was tested on a Jeep Wrangler off-roading and performed perfectly. This may be a great solution to this existing problem since this new wheel is light weight, and strong enough to be driven on the sharp Martian rocks. The wheels material is a Shape Memory Alloy which allows it to be deformed in its shape but it still returns to its original state. This wheel has super elasticity. The future Mars rovers could now be launched into Mars at a lower weight and these wheel could be a great substitution for off-roaders on Earth as well. I feel like the team relates very much to the engineering team that helped create a new wheel for rovers since the engineers at NASA partnered with Goodyear. Our team, much like NASA and Goodyear, has members with their own unique set of skills that could be put to work into making the pulley system. For example, Bruce is a very talented drawer that could make a perfect poster, and Katie knew how to cut and perfect the design we have now. Link to the video- https://youtu.be/2lv6Vs12jLc