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How's it possible to get all that wear in ten miles? That's just a trip to church. My car tires don't even register that.


Your car tires are rubber, and designed to last for a long time at speed. Curiosity's tires are aluminum, and are designed for much less and much slower driving. That seems weird, but the important point is their mass: they only weigh 3 lbs (~1,4kg) per wheel, compared to over 20 lbs for the tire alone (without the rim) on a normal car. Mass budgets are extremely tight on space missions, every pound saved can either go towards more scientific payload or significantly decrease launch costs.


Car tires also have the benefit of a nearby support system. They were looking for wheels that would do the job with 100% certainty of never being able to be replaced.


And they probably do like 99.9% of their distance over roads in effectively perfect condition.


Also rubber would disintegrate given hot/cold cycles and radiation.


Your car tires aren't made out of <1mm thick aluminium driving over rocks either.


Your trip is presumably not over some extremely sharp rocks.




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