With the car on the moon

When Neil Armstrong became the first human being that set foot on the moon within the scope of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, he said the famous words »That’s one small step for (a) man … one … giant leap for mankind«  and hence erected a monument for this historic move. Rarely in history, did the success of human research and development work, condense so impressively in just one moment.  

After it was clear that further flights to the moon were to be performed, and they simultaneously knew how small the human radius of movement would remain by foot in the moon dust, it was obvious to build a vehicle. And this is how hundreds of engineers began to frantically construct and build a moon car for the following period.

The equipment of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) reads more like the description of a modern luxury limo: electric motor, four-wheel drive, aluminium frame, two seater with open roof … a look at the result, however, shows distinct deviations 😉

It is said, that some of the technical inventions continue to find use in today’s automotive manufacture and that the development devoured millions of dollars. Three of these lunar vehicles were called into action for the Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17 in the years 1971 and 1972. They made drives of several kilometres possible as well as the collection of lunar rocks by the kilo, which was an important part of the research assignment.

All of the moon cars have been parked on the moon and still remain there until today. In actual fact, this is moon pollution, if you look at it more closely. But as there are no owls on the moon, nobody cares two hoots about it.

1 Comment

  1. Anonymous | 7 June 2011

    Lunatics with moombeams and stardust…

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