Do you remember the Tweel? For those who need their memory refreshed, it was an airless-tyreless wheel brought to the world by Michelin's at the 2004 Paris Motor Show.  It was set to revolutionise the automotive world and then mysteriously disappeared from the limelight.

Conspiracy theorists might argue that the global rubber giants forced Michelin to kill off the project to protect sales, although the truth is perhaps a little less interesting, in that the Tweel just did not live up to its initial billing and also can make even the most beautiful car look ugly. However, the project is not completely dead and is set to make a return in an unlikely setting, on the moon.

Michelin is to supply tyres to NASA for its next generation of moon buggies, where the puncture proof design will be ideal for the harsh lunar terrain. It is anticipated that the Tweel will turn on the moon sometime in the next decade. Whether we will see any on the roads before then, remains to be seen.