Apollo 16: Driving on the Moon
Video Credit:
NASA
What would it be like to drive on the Moon?
You don't have to guess -- humans have actually done it.
Pictured above,
Apollo 16 astronauts
John Young and
Charles Duke recorded video
during one such drive in 1972, with a digital version now available on the web.
No matter which direction it headed, the
Lunar Rover
traveled a path literally covered with rocks and craters.
The first half of
the above video
shows the rover zipping about a moonscape near 10 kilometers per hour, while the second half
shows a dash-cam like view.
The Lunar Rover was deployed on the later
Apollo missions
as a way for astronauts to reach and explore terrain further from the
Lunar Module basecamp than was possible by walking in cumbersome spacesuits.
Possible
future lunar missions
that might deploy
robotic rovers capable of beaming back similar videos include those by
China,
Russia,
India, and
Google X-Prize contestants.