| The Lunar Rover (sometimes also called the | | | | in the vacuum of the Moon. Each wheel had its |
| "moon buggy", and officially named Lunar Roving | | | | own 200W electric drive and brakes, it had both |
| Vehicle - LRV) was a surface exploration rover | | | | front and rear steering motors and was powered |
| used on the Moon during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 | | | | by two 36V non-rechargeable batteries. A colour |
| missions. | | | | television camera was mounted on the front and |
| The original vehicle was developed in only 17 | | | | could be remotely operated by Mission Control, |
| months by Boeing (although there were cost | | | | which allowed far better television coverage of |
| overruns), it was mostly made of aluminium and | | | | the EVA than the earlier missions. A large mesh |
| had a top speed of about 8 mph (13 km/h) and a | | | | dish antenna was mounted on a mast on the |
| weight of 463 lb (210 kg). A total of four rovers | | | | front center of the rover. |
| had been built, but only three were used as Apollo | | | | The rover was operated using a hand controller |
| 18 and further missions had been cancelled. | | | | situated between the two seats, control and |
| The rover was first used on July 31, 1971 during | | | | display modules were situated in front of the |
| the Apollo 15 mission and finally allowed the | | | | handle and gave information on the speed, |
| astronauts to expand the range of their lunar | | | | heading, pitch, power and temperature levels. All |
| explorations - previous missions only allowed short | | | | movements were continuously recorded and the |
| walking distances around the landing site. In case | | | | overall direction and distance back to the landing |
| of a technical malfunction the astronauts would | | | | site were computer controlled. |
| have been force to walk back the way to the | | | | All three NASA rovers have been abandoned on |
| landing site, therefore the traverses were limited | | | | the Moon where they can still be found today, |
| in the distance. But all three rovers performed | | | | although they are far too small to be visible on |
| well and didn't cause any major problems. | | | | the surface using telescopes. |
| The LRV was an electric so that it could operate | | | | |