2017: The wheel

[ElektroQuark]

[woody]

Looks like maybe King Arthur might have the patent on that technology 

[ElektroQuark]

Will it be the future on our cars?

[Cyberdragon]

Will it be the future on our cars?

Nope, it'll end up on forklifts like the Twheel did.

[ElektroQuark]

Didn't know about the Twheel.
Thank you for the reference.

[chickenHeadKnob]

I foresee one show stopping problem, small rocks which are just a tiny bit larger than the mesh size will be forced under pressure to be en-trained in the mesh or forced inside to be forever held captive. Like a pebble diode.
 

[Whales]

Like a pebble diode.

At faster speeds it'll be a varicap.

[MadTux]

Lol, these people at NASA are so smart, any well balanced car can drive on 3 wheels, doesn't necessarily need a forth one invented by NASA. But the average idiot will think NASA revolutionized the world once again  ;-)

[TerraHertz]

What happens after one wire breaks? Does it unravel like an old sweater?
Down to what temperature does the wire stay springy, as opposed to brittle?
Also yes, pebble diode.  Needs some kind of spiral rubbish-ejector structure inside.

The wheels on the Mars rovers are looking pretty sad. Rocks keep tearing the thin metal sheeting between the thicker ribs of the cast metal wheels.

[retrolefty]

Won't work safely on earth because everyone knows that you can't have your car grounded through the tires contacting the earth.   

[Kleinstein]

For use in roads there would be rather low friction - so not good for driving at any reasonable speed. Chances are also they would not last very long.

Those TiNi Alloys have a limited temperature range, but AFAIK not that limited to be a real problem.

That TiNi super eleastic material is really cool stuff. I once had a sample in hand at the university: It was something like a 3-4 mm thick rod, and one could bend it with bare hands to something like a horse shoe form and it came back perfectly. The elasticity is a little like rubber: once bend / stretched to a certain level, the force does not get much higher. There are frames for glassed made from such material.

[IanMacdonald]

"For use in roads there would be rather low friction"

I could see them being a LOT worse when wet, too. 

[cdev]

This is great because continued use of rubber tires presents a major environmental problem.

[TerraHertz]

Hmmm.... since they used the term 'chain mail', I wonder if this mesh could be useful for spacesuits? Make the mesh quite fine, then embed in something like neoprene, to get a flexible but very tough and puncture resistant material?
As a bonus it would be electrically conductive, so with care could make the spacesuit a complete Faraday cage.