July 23, 2019 |
Fifty Years After Going to the Moon, Goodyear Looks to Space to Enhance Tyre Performance
The Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company is reaching for the stars again to enhance tyre performance by testing components in space as part of a project launching this month to the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory.
With an expected launch on July 21, the SpaceX CRS-18 will head to the ISS with a Goodyear experiment on board. In the microgravity environment of the space station, Goodyear will study the formation of silica particles, a common material used in consumer tyres. By gathering knowledge from this evaluation, Goodyear engineers and scientists can determine if unique forms of precipitated silica might be considered for use in tyres to enhance performance.
“Goodyear, quite literally, has gone to the moon and back to take tyre performance to new levels for consumers,” said Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s chief technology officer. “Space exploration has served as inspiration for so much innovation, and we at Goodyear are proud of our legacy of participation, which continues with this upcoming experiment in microgravity.”
In July 1969, Goodyear supplied essential products for the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Goodyear brakes helped the missiles move into place on the launch pads; a Goodyear “purge and conditioning” system helped the engines circulate nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen; the window frame of the command module was Goodyear-manufactured, as was the panel on which the landing instruments were mounted.
When Apollo 11 splashed down into the ocean, upon its return to Earth, the capsule was kept upright by Goodyear-made flotation bags, so the astronauts could crawl into recovery rafts. Later Apollo astronauts used a cart to carry photo equipment, digging tools and 35 bags they filled with lunar rock, and the 16-inch tyres on that cart were the result of a development project upon which hundreds of Goodyear associates had worked.
This year, Goodyear’s in-space evaluation is being conducted through an agreement with the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, which has a cooperative working agreement with NASA to fully utilise the orbiting laboratory with innovative science and technology demonstrations capable of benefiting life on Earth.
Astronauts aboard the ISS will conduct the Goodyear-prepared silica experiment while Goodyear scientists will simultaneously carry out the same experiment in the company’s labs, allowing a comparison when the space research results, frozen for the journey back to Earth, are studied later.
Successful partnership between Hankook Tyre and the DTM now officially extended until 2023 at the Norisring
The location could not have been better. At the Norisring, the street circuit in Nuremberg known as the Franconian Monaco in the DTM race-calendar, the partnership between premium tyre maker Hankook Tyre and the DTM was made official. On Sunday, in the presence of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Han-Jun Kim, President of Hankook Tyre Europe, and Gerhard Berger, Chairman of the DTM umbrella organisation ITR confirmed the continuation of the trusted and successful collaboration until at least 2023.
