Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle: User's Guide

Apollo 15 Commander David Scott drives the lunar roving
vehicle on the surface of the Moon, the first time the rover
was used. Source: NASA

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was an electric vehicle that allowed Apollo 15, 16, and 17 astronauts to drive on the Moon. It was folded up in the lunar module (LM) and deployed as show in in Image 1.

Image 1: Deployment sequence.
Source: Boeing Company

Astronauts were able to explore much more terrain with the rover.

 
The Apollo 15 astronauts drove a total of 27.8 km (17.3 miles) in 3 hours, 2 minutes of driving time.

 
The Apollo 16 astronauts traversed 26.7 km (16.6 miles) in 3 hours 26 minutes of driving.  Apollo 16 covered less distance in a longer time.  Note comments about visibility by Apollo 16's commander HERE.

 
The Apollo 17 astronauts went a whopping 35.9 km (22.3 miles) in 4 hours 26 minutes total drive time. At their farthest, the Apollo 17 astronauts were 7.6 km (4.7 miles) from the LM!

Image 2: Control and display console. 
Source: Boeing Company

The final cost of this amazing machine was $38 million. Four lunar rovers were built, one each for Apollos 15, 16, and 17, and one that was used for spare parts after the cancellation of further Apollo missions.

A 1-gravity trainer was also built to allow astronauts to practice driving.  They also trained to handle malfunctions.  Fortunately, the LRV operated just fine for all three missions.

Image 3: Example of one of many malfunction logic flow diagrams.
Source: Boeing Company

It took only 17 months to develop the LRV. Apollo 17's lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt said,

"....the Lunar Rover proved to be the reliable, safe and flexible lunar exploration vehicle we expected it to be. Without it, the major scientific discoveries of Apollo 15, 16, and 17 would not have been possible..."

Image 4: When the steering dies, just pick up the rover to change direction! 
Source: Boeing Company

Sources:

[1] "Lunar Rover Operations Handbook"; Doc. LS006-002-2H; Boeing Company, LRV Systems Engineering; July 7, 1971; https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/43944200-Lunar-Rover-Operations-Handbook-07071971.pdf

[2] "The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle"; https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_lrv.html

Apollo 16 "Invisible" Obstacles

More info: Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Journal; https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a16/a16.trvsta1.html

Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) gets a high-speed workout by Apollo 16 commander John Young. Source: NASA

When exploring the moon, Apollo astronauts visited several different "stations." These could be craters or other landmarks that looked interesting to scientists.

In the early missions, the astronauts walked to each station. Later, they had a cool moon buggy to drive.

John Young, the Apollo 16 commander, spent three days driving the Lunar Rover to distant stations, and he had some scary moments with "invisible" craters.  

After he returned to Earth in 1972, he met with engineers to discuss the mission and the worries he had about driving on the moon.

When Artemis astronauts return to the moon, this may be something to watch for...

* * * * *

"I was scared to go more than 4 or 5 kilometers an hour. Going out there, looking dead ahead, I couldn't see the craters. I could see the blocks alright and avoid them. But I couldn't see craters. I couldn't see benches. I was scared to go more than 4 or 5 clicks. Maybe some times I got up to 6 or 7, but I ran through a couple of craters because I flat missed (seeing) them until I was on top of them. And, I don't recommend driving in zero phase (which is the direction directly opposite the Sun). (Pre-flight) they kept saying they wanted it included in the traverse, and I specifically cautioned them not to include it on the traverse. But, there is no way for us to get to Flag Crater without driving in zero phase. It sure is grim. The other direction (on the way back to the LM) was about twice as good. I saw my tracks on the way back. We were doing 7, 8, 9, and 10 clicks. It wasn't any good during the traverses where we were going down-Sun. I was tacking a lot of times. But, when you got to a ridge, you couldn't tell if it was a drop-off, or whether it was a smooth, shallow ridge. In a couple of cases, you couldn't see there was a ridge. I didn't care for that much. It's kind of like landing an airplane aboard ship where you're looking right into the Sun and you can't see what you're doing. You just go ahead and land it anyway. It is not normal but, on occasion, you have to do it. But you'd just as soon not."

[Excerpt from the Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Journal with corrected transcript and commentary by Eric M. Jones (Copyright © 1997).]