Bridgestone joins lunar module team

Bridgestone has partnered with Teledyne Brown Engineering to design and build a crewed lunar terrain vehicle.

The Japanese tire manufacturer is teaming up with automaker Nissan North America to provide NASA, if selected, with a vehicle capable of navigating the moon's harsh terrain.

Commercial space company Sierra Space and aircraft producer Textron are also joining Bridgestone, Nissan and Teledyne.

Bridgestone will focus on the module's tires. In a Sunday release, the company alluded to using its "airless tires" now in development.

"To ensure tire function and safety under difficult operating conditions (rocky and sandy desert with exposure to extreme temperatures and cosmic ray radiation) the company is developing and validating metal airless tire concepts," the release said.

Bridgestone and Nissan aren't the only companies in the automotive space that have signed on to a lunar project this year. General Motors announced a partnership with Lockheed Martin in July to do the same, using its Ultium electric vehicle batteries.