The last thing you need on a trip to the Moon is a flat tire. 🚗 Luckily, NASA’s water-hunting robot – bound for the lunar surface in 2023 – has no tires! But the all-metal wheels of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will have to withstand a whole lot of rocking and rolling as they move across the rugged lunar surface. Before the rover’s design was finalized at its Critical Design Review, the endurance of its wheels had to undergo rigorous testing in the lab. Using a Moon-mimicking set-up, the VIPER team tested one of the rover’s wheels over a three-week period. The wheel clocked 25 miles of movement in a high-tech sandbox filled with lunar soil simulant, running through a battery of tests. The team simulated slopes, wheel slips, and even the size, shape, and distribution of rocks the rover will encounter on the Moon. Credit: ProtoInnovations, LLC #Artemis #NASA #MoonRock #MoonRover #VIPER #LunarMission #LunarRover #LaboratoryTesting #FlatTire