Knowing The Tires Age--Photo by Richard Elliott

You just had new tires put on your vehicle, but how new are they?  Actually, they could be a few years old.  When you buy new tires, you are probably thinking they were recently manufactured, such as in the past six months.  One way to know when the tire was made is to look at the tire for the manufacture date.  This is especially important, because a tire tends to start breaking down and becoming brittle after six years.  If the tire shop or tire supplier did not rotate their tire stock, first-in, first-out, you could be receiving a tire that is older than what you are expecting.   So, look for the DOT (Department of Transportation) number placed on the side of the tire.

The tire pictured above looks new.  Look at that beefy tread!  However, look at the raised numbers “429″ in the square near the rim.  Translated, that means the pictured tire was made on the forty-second week of 1999!  This is a DOT code.  According the the article, “Tire Code” in Wikipedia.com, “All tires for use in the USA have the DOT code, as required by the Department of Transportation (DOT). 

The article “Tire Tech Information/General Tire Information” (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=172) says DOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) “requires that the Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturere’s code, along with the week and year the tire was manufactured.”  

For tires manufactured before the year 2000, the DOT code would reflect 3 digits, like the “429″ shown in the photo.  This tells when the tire was made.  In this case, it was made on the forty-second week of 2009.  Thus, it was manufactured in October 2009.  Tires constructed from the year 2000 and up will show a four digit DOT numbering, such as 0812, showing that the tire was created on the eight week of 2012–February 2012.  Why all this concern over tire code?

According to the Wikipedia article, “Research and tests show that as tires age, they begin to dry out and become potentially dangerous, even if unused.”  Since rubber degrades over time, an aged tire’s tread may peel off, especially at high speeds.  Many tire manufacturers recommend replacing a tire when it is about six years old.  ”Although not law, some tire manufacturers do not suggest using a “new” tire that has been sitting on the shelf for more than six years.”

For you sports enthusiasts towing camping or boat trailers over those hot, summer Mojave Desert roads, be advised that tires on seldom-used trailers are at the greatest risk of failure, due to tire age.  Also, for those of you only rotating and replacing the main  four tires, check the DOT tire date on your spare!  When purchasing new tires, ask your tire shop to check the DOT code, because you want the newest, safest tires on your vehicle!

NASA'S test rover, 'Scarecrow'

The Mars rover (named Curiosity) is still en route to Mars and won’t get there until August, but NASA wants to be prepared for that moment.  So, it’s been holding training exercises in one the environments which closely resembles the red planet; Dumont Dunes in Death Valley.

Because it doesn’t have the ‘brain’ that the real rover has, the test rover has been called ‘Scarecrow’, referring to the character from The Wizard of Oz, who wanted so much to have a brain.  Scarecrow only weighs about 750 pounds, far less then the 2,000 pound behemoth which will be landing on Mars.

The real rover will be brought down by a sky crane, a sort of hovering rocketship, and the rover will be exploring an area called Gale Crater, from which the 3-mile high Mt. Sharp rises from the middle.  Its main mission will to be to examine the layers of Mt. Sharp and also determine if Gale Crater was ever able to support microbial life.  It is reported that the real rover has 10 instruments to help it identify organic material, even a laser that will used on rocks.

This scenario reminds us of the Desert Dogs last trip to Beveridge City, where we witnessed an UNIDENTIFIED Flying Object.  One of the possibilities we discussed was a rover.  The hovering and erratic flying we witnessed could be explained by the sky crane, and the much closer to the ground strafing and light show could be a test rover using its test laser.  Again, we don’t know what we saw, but parts of this story definitely reminded us of what we saw!

One of the Mojave Space Port's rockets take off for a test flight. Photo from Masten Space Systems

For the longest time, the town of Mojave, California was an afterthought for mapmakers.  It was quiet, quaint, desert town with about 4,200 residents.  Who would’ve guessed it would become the epicenter for global space travel?

In case you haven’t heard, the town of Mojave is home to the Mojave Air and Space Port, a facility that was one a Marine Corps air field during World War II.   What’s drawing everyone’s attention is the large group of startup aerospace companies that have gathered at the “space port”.  From this port the first private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, took off in 2004.  This space port is the cultural hub of the “New Space Movement”, a group of aerospace companies funded by two billionaires’ companies: Virgin Galactic which is owned by Richard Branson, and Stratolaunch of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The next step for the human race’s exploration of space, after the initial pioneering by NASA and astronomers/astrophysicists, is to be filled by creative electronic entrepreneurs who have usually been associated with computer technology (i.e. Hewlett Packard).

And to set the record straight, the type of space travel currently being practiced is suborbital, which is just past the atmosphere.  There won’t be any intergalactic travel some time now.  I think we have to visit Mars first, right?