Yesterday marked the 54th anniversary of the first lunar buggy ride.

▲ Astronaut Dave Scott piloted the all-terrain buggy on the lunar surface in 1971. Photo by Europa Press

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. Yesterday marked 54 years since Apollo XV astronaut Dave Scott first drove the famous all-terrain buggy to travel across the lunar surface, in 1971.

The Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) arrived on the Moon packaged and measuring 90 by 150 by 170 centimeters, inserted into a compartment of the LEM descent module. The vehicle's operating range was set at 78 hours during the lunar day.

The three LRV vehicles were built by Boeing, with support from General Motors' Delco Electronics.

They consisted of a golden aluminum chassis with four wheels (not pneumatic, but made of steel mesh) and two seats. When fully deployed, they measured 3.10 meters long, 1.80 meters wide, and weighed 181 kilos empty, including the attachment and deployment device. The fully loaded weight was 621 kilos.

The speed reached was about 3-4 kilometers per hour, and the maximum was 14, and in total they traveled 90.8 kilometers on the lunar surface, never moving further than 9.6 kilometers from the module, since if the vehicle broke down, it was the maximum safe distance they could travel on foot to the ship, reports Wikipedia.

In addition to carrying two astronauts, it also carried short-range antennas, repeaters for live radio communications with Earth, television cameras, photo cameras, a soil drill, sample-gathering tweezers, a magnetometer, tools, spare parts, and cassettes under the seats.