On this day in 1971, the fourth crewed mission to the Moon was launched. Apollo 15 was the first mission to include a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Per NASA, the LRV:
was a four-wheeled, manually controlled, electrically powered vehicle that carried the crew and their equipment over the lunar surface. The increased mobility and ease of the travel made possible by this vehicle permitted the crew to travel much greater distances than on previous lunar landing missions. The vehicle was designed to carry the two crewmen and a science payload at a maximum velocity of about 16 kilomenters per hour (8.6 mph) on a smooth, level surface and at reduced veolocities on slopes up to 25 degrees. It could be operated from either crewman’s positions, as the control and display console was located on the vehicle centerline. The deployed vehicle was appoximately 10 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 45 inches high. Its chassis was hinged such that the forward and aft sections folded back over the center potion, and each of the wheel suspension systems rotated so that the folded vehicle would fit in quadrant I of the lunar module. The gross operational weight was approximately 1535 pounds, of which 455 pounds was the weight of the vehicle itself. The remainder was the weight of the crew, their equipment, communications equipment, and the science payload.
The Apollo 15 LRV can still be seen on the Moon!
