The 5 Cars That Wheeled Across the Moon

All five rovers that the Soviet Union and the U.S. left on the moon in the 1970s have been found by a NASA orbiter—and three are still used today for gathering data.



Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle 3

In December 1972 Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan discovered a new difficulty of driving a rover on the moon's surface. While Cernan was walking by the rover, the hammer pocket of his suit caught one of the front fenders and tore it off. And without fenders to cover the wheels, the rover kicked up so much dust that they couldn't see. The fix, of course, was duct tape, but only after the astronauts took the broken part into the lunar module—too much dust outside kept the duct tape from sticking.

Schmitt and Cernan also claimed the fastest speed and the greatest distance in their three rover drives. Coming down a steep hill, their vehicle reportedly hit about 10 mph. The rovers were equipped with a gyroscopic readout and an odometer, both of which would come in handy. The longest journey the pair drove the LRV was 12 miles, and their total distance in the rover during the mission was 21.5 miles. The adventuresome pair drove the rover 4.5 miles from the safety of the lunar module.