Bridgestone Corp. has joined Teledyne Brown Engineering’s team designing and building the crewed lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) for NASA.
NASA hopes to reach new territory in space development and will need a crewed and autonomous vehicle to navigate unexplored areas of the moon. The LTV will have to endure extreme temperatures and harsh environments. Bridgestone plans to provide the lunar tires for the LTV program. Bridgestone brings more than 90 years of experience developing tires to the team.
In addition to Teledyne Brown, Bridgestone will be working with Nissan North America, Sierra Space and Textron on the LTV project.
“This partnership helps further solidify the strength of our team and the durable vehicle that will be a product of its collaboration,” said Scott Hall, president of Teledyne’s Engineered Systems Segment. “The experience and reputation of Bridgestone is unparalleled and a tremendous asset for our vehicle in its journey to and on the moon’s surface.”
Founded in 1931, Bridgestone has been a driver of tire technology innovation. It started working on research for the tires of the crewed lunar vehicle in 2019. In order to ensure the function and safety under difficult operating conditions, the company is developing and validating metal airless tire concepts — leveraging its “mastering road contact” technology that has been acquired from various experiences on roads around the world.
“This project is a bold new challenge for humanity, and we are honored to be joining the Teledyne team,” said Makoto Ishiyama, executive director, Next Generation Technology Development, Bridgestone. He added that the project would help fulfill the corporation’s commitment to “nonstop mobility and innovation that keeps people and the world moving ahead.”
Teledyne Brown Engineering is based in Huntsville. It recently has designed, built and delivered three Launch Vehicle Stage Adapters for NASA’s Artemis vehicle. TBE announced in April that it had received the LTV contract. It is part of Teledyne Technologies Inc., with locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Western and Northern Europe.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Bridgestone employs 130,000 people globally and conducts business in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide.
