On this day in space! July 31, 1971: Apollo 15 astronauts drive on the moon for 1st time

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On July 31, 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the moon for the first time. Future moon explorers will drive 21st century designs.

On July 31, 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the moon for the first time.

David Scott, the commander of Apollo 15, and James Irwin, the lunar module pilot explored the moon for three days by driving around in the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Apollo 15 command module pilot Al Worden remained in orbit around the moon. This moon buggy was folded up and stowed inside the lunar module and deployed after landing. Unpacked, it measured about 10 feet long, 7 feet wide and 45 inches high.

The lunar rover could travel up to 8.6 miles per hour and allowed the astronauts to venture farther from their landing site than previous Apollo astronauts could. For their first drive, Scott and Irwin went to Elbow Crater to gather samples and take photos. Throughout their stay on the moon, they drove more than 17 miles.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle is seen on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission, the first to use the LRV, in 1971.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle is seen on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission, the first to use the LRV, in 1971. (Image credit: NASA)

The Apollo 15 mission launched to the moon on July 26, 1971. The mission landed on July 30, with Scott and Irwin ultimately performing three moonwalks in addition to their lunar rover test drive. The Apollo 15 crew left the moon's surface on Aug. 2 and left lunar orbit on Aug. 4. They returned to Earth on Aug. 7, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Why it mattered

Apollo 15's moon rover made space history as the first human-driven rover on the moon, let alone another world entirely.

While developing the rover, NASA had to wrangle many issues at once. How do you build a rover light enough to land on the moon with the Apollo 15 lunar lander? How do you make it compact as well?

The result was an aluminum, foldable moon car built by Boeing and powered by batteries that could carry up to 1,080 pounds (490 kg) of cargo — about twice its own weight — while carrying two astronauts. The rover design flew on Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. Those three rovers are still on the lunar surface awaiting fresh batteries.

Today, NASA is looking to new companies to build unpressurized rovers like the Lunar Roving Vehicle, as well as pressurized vehicles that would allow crews to drive without a spacesuit on. Those rovers will be a critical asset for Artemis astronauts as they build a permanent moon base, NASA has said.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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