can you inflate a tire on the moon?

Answer 1

I'm not sure but this is one of the better questions on yahoo.

Answer 2

Well, yes.
But not by taking a regular tire pump with you on your trip to the moon. The pump is designed to take the surrounding air, compress it, and push it through a tube connected to the tire's valve. But on the moon, there is no surrounding air.

So you would have to take the air along with you, probably in a compressed air tank. as others have noted, it would take less air in the tire to give you the desired pressure. On earth, when we say a tire has 30 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure, we mean that it has 30 psi more pressure than the surrounding air (which is at a pressure of 15 psi), for a total of 45 psi. On the moon, you wouldn't need 45 psi to get the same effect. 30 psi would do it, since there is no outside air pressure.

Incidentally, as you may know, the "Lunar Rover" that the Apollo astronauts used on the moon did not have pneumatic (air-filled) tires. It's tires were roughly the same shape as rubber tires, but they consisted of a lightweight, but stiff, wire mesh in the form of large donuts (that is, they were tire-shaped), with nothing on the inside of the "tubes."

Answer 3

Well, you'd have to bring your own air to do it, but yes. The tire (the inner tube also would have to be made out of some substance other than the nylon or rubber we use for tires on earth, however. Those substances contain what are called "volatiles"--chemicals that keep the rubber or nylon soft and flexible. But in vacuum those chemicals will quickly dissibpat, leaving the aterial brittle.

But as long as you choose some appropriate material to make the tires, they can be inflated and would work as wel on the moon as on earth.

Answer 4

Yes. In fact, if the rim is sealed and it has any air in it at all, it will inflate itself. The vacuum outside the tire will magnify the minimal air pressure inside the tire. Remember, on Earth, you have 15 PSI working against you, on the Moon there's none. Be careful you don't overinflate.

Answer 5

You'd need a tank of air and some kind of pump(there's no atmosphere on the moon), but yes there is no reason you couldn't pump your tires beyond that.

Answer 6

Yes, Pressurized air is just that, pressurized. It will flow from one tank to another container. It might blow up the tire, it might launch you off the moon, but it is theoretically feasible.

Answer 7

Yeah but they have one of those annoying air hose machines that takes like 3 quarters, so you'd better bring some change. That's why Apollo 15 couldn't use their buggy, they forgot to bring quarters.