Lunar and Planetary Rovers

The Wheels of Apollo and the Quest for Mars fills a need for a complete history of the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17, drawing on many photographs never before published. It also tells the story of the robotic rovers used on Mars, and concludes with a description of the new designs of rovers planned for The New Vision for Exploration now underway at NASA. The book provides extensive quotes from the astronauts who drove the LRV on the Moon from interviews conducted especially for the book. It also details new material from interviews of engineers and managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory covering the robotic rovers, Sojourner, Sprit and Opportunity. The Foreword is written by David R. Scott, Commander of Apollo 15.

Chapter 1: From Concept to Reality; Chapter 2: Lunar Roving Vehicle Subsystems; Chapter 3: Training for the Moon; Chapter 4: To the Hadley Plains; Chapter 4: Mysterious and Unknown Descartes; Chapter 5: Destiny at Taurus-Littrow; Chapter Six: The Quest for Mars-Chapter Seven: The New Vision of Exploration.

• Planet
• design
• moon
• relativistic jet
• space
• space exploration

From the reviews:

"To this reviewer’s knowledge, this is the first book ever published on one of the most remarkable space vehicles ever built: the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV. … It is both very readable and very informative, and the many illustrations are excellent, including two sections of good-quality colour plates. Many of these images have never been published before. Definitely recommended." (David Maclennan, Liftoff, Issue 239, 2007)

"Aerospace historian Young has prepared a history of the design, development, and deployment of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) on the moon as part of the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions. … The book is well organized, with many color and black-and-white photographs. … A book for those in all areas of space science and engineering and in the history of space exploration. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels." (A. M. Strauss, CHOICE, Vol. 44 (10), June, 2007)

• Aerospace Historian, Miami, USA

  Anthony H. Young

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