Dune Buggies on the Moon, Part 2

The Lunar Roving Vehicle 

Apollo 15 Lunar Rover on the Moon in 1971

Image: NASA (Public domain)

Engineers at Boeing and General motors designed an electric-powered vehicle perfectly tuned to operate on the surface of the moon. The first of the three moon buggies taken to the moon was unpacked from the Lunar Module by Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin. They spent over three hours in the 10 foot long buggy, traveling a total distance of 22.3 miles. On Apollo 16, John Young and Charles Duke drove their 460 pound buggy across mountainous terrain gathering geologic samples. In all, these two astronauts brought back 211 lbs of material. These samples reshaped our understanding of the origins of these lunar highlands.

Read more here:
Dune Buggies on the Moon, Part 1
Dune Buggies on the Moon, Part 3

Ice Moon Station will publish more on the Apollo missions in future posts. 
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