Returning to the moon half a century later and then back to Mars, this actually means reinventing the wheel.

After all, Mars still has a long way to go if you get flat.

"One thing you can't have is puncture," said Florent Menegaux, CEO of French character Michelin.

The experience of the uncurious wanderer emphasizes the tough conditions on Mars.

Just a year after its 2012 landing, its six rigid aluminum tires were pierced and teared.

As for the moon, the American Artemis mission is designed to return astronauts to 2027.

Later Artemis Missions planned to use a lunar rover to explore the moon's Antarctica, starting with Artemis V, which is currently scheduled for 2030.

Artemis astronauts travel farther than their Apollo predecessors, who never ventured more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) in six landing sites between 1969 and 1972.

"The goal is to cover 10,000 kilometers in 10 years," Sylvain Barthet said.

"We're not talking about short-term, one-week period, we're talking about decades of utilization," said Dr. Santo Padula, who has a Ph.D. in materials science.

A huge challenge for anyone developing technology for the moon is the huge temperature range.

On the moon pole, the temperature may be below -230c, which is not far from the absolute zero where the atoms stop moving.

This is a tire problem.

"Without atomic motion, it's hard for you to make the material deform and return," Dr. Padula said.

Tires need to be able to deform when crossing rocks over rocks and then returning to their original shape.

"If we permanently deform the tire, it won't roll effectively and we have problems with our power loss," Dr. Padula said.

The new wheel will also bear a greater burden than the lightweight Ranger Apollo astronaut.

The next space mission will require driving “larger scientific platforms and mobile habitats that are getting bigger and bigger”, he said.

On Mars, this would be an even clumsy problem, with twice the gravity on the moon.

Lunar Rovers of Apollo used tires made of zinc-coated piano wire, which in a braided mesh ranged about 21 miles.

Metal alloys and high-performance plastics are major competitors for airless space tires because extreme temperatures and cosmic rays decompose rubber or turn it into brittle glass.

"Usually, metal or carbon fiber materials are used for these wheels," said Pietro Baglion, team leader at Rosalind Franklin Mission, European Space Agency (ESA).

One promising material is nidilol, a nickel and titanium alloy.

"Fusing these, it creates a rubber-acting metal that bends all these different ways, and it will always extend to its original shape," said Earl Patrick Cole, CEO of Smart Tires.

He called Nitinol's flexible nature "one of the craziest things you'll ever see."

Nitinol is a potentially "revolutionary" material, says Dr. Padula, energy that changes as the alloys follow their state also absorbs and releases energy. It may even have solutions for heating and cooling, he said.

But Mr. Barthet of Michelin believes that materials closer to high-performance plastics will be more suitable for tires that need to cover the moon's long distances.

Meanwhile, Bridgestone adopted a biological simulation method by making a model of camel pedals.

Camels have soft fat foot pedals that disperse their weight to a larger surface area, causing the feet to sink into loose sandy soil.

Inspired by the fact that Bridgestone is using felt-like materials for its tread, while the wheels include thin metal spokes that can be bent.

Bending divides the weight of the Moon module into larger contact areas, so it can drive without getting stuck in rock and dust debris on the moon's surface.

Michelin and Bridgestone are both part of different consortiums that, together with California's Venturi Astrolab, introduced their proposed tire technology to NASA this month at the John Glenn Center.

NASA is expected to make a decision later this year - it may choose one proposal or adopt several of them.

Meanwhile, Michelin is testing tires by driving a sample rover on a volcano near Clermont, whose powdery terrain resembles the surface of the moon.

Bridgestone does the same on Totori dunes in western Japan.

Mr Barthet said ESA is also exploring the possibility of Europe completing other tasks alone.

This work may have some useful applications on Earth.

While pursuing his PhD at the University of Southern California, Dr. Cole joined the NASA Entrepreneur Program, dedicated to commercializing some of the technologies from Mars' ultra-elastic roaming tires.

Early this year will be nickel bicycle tires.

Each one costs about $150 (£120), and the tires are much more expensive than regular tires, but very durable.

He also plans to work on durable motorcycle tires this year, targeting rough road areas.

Despite this, his "dream" is still the role of human beings returning to the moon.

"So, I can tell my kids to look up on the moon," he said. "Dad's tires are there."