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A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program 's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15 , 16 , and 17 .
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972.
VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover which was developed at the NASA Ames Research Center.Before the project was cancelled in 2024 the rover would have been tasked with prospecting for lunar resources in permanently shadowed areas of lunar south pole region, especially by mapping the distribution and concentration of water ice.
The Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) is an unpressurized rover being developed for NASA that astronauts can drive on the Moon while wearing their spacesuits. [1] The development of the LTV is a part of NASA's Artemis Program, which involves returning astronauts to the Moon, specifically the lunar south pole, by 2026, but the LTV will not fly until Artemis V in 2030 at the earliest. [2]
The Lunokhod 2 lunar rover. The Lunokhod 2 was the second of two uncrewed lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program. The rover became operational on the Moon on January 16, 1973. [8] It was the second roving remote-controlled robot to land on any celestial body.
First crewed lunar rover Apollo 16: Lunar Roving Vehicle: NASA: 21 April 1972 8.97301°S 15.50019°E: 3 h 26 min 26.55 km (16.50 mi) Apollo 17: Lunar Roving Vehicle: NASA: 11 December 1972 20.1908°N 30.7717°E: 4 h 26 min 35.89 km (22.30 mi) Furthest distance travelled by crewed lunar rover Artemis V: Lunar Terrain Vehicle: NASA: 2030 TBD
The rover demonstrated its ability to endure its first lunar night when it was commanded out of sleep mode on 11 January 2014. [50] On 25 January 2014, China's state media announced the rover had undergone a "mechanical control abnormality" caused by the "complicated lunar surface environment".
During its first full lunar day, the rover travelled 120 m (390 ft), and on 11 February 2019 it powered down for its second lunar night. [83] [84] In May 2019, it was reported that Chang'e 4 has identified what appear to be mantle rocks on the surface, its primary objective. [85] [86] [87]