Alunar rover orMoon rover is aspace explorationvehicle designed to move across thesurface of the Moon. TheApollo program'sLunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews,Apollo 15,16, and17. Other rovers have been partially or fullyautonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union'sLunokhods, ChineseYutus, IndianPragyan, and Japan'sLEVs. Five countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan.
Lunar rover designs have varied in several ways.
Lunokhod rovers were 170 centimetres (67 in) in length.[1] The LRVs were 10 ft (3.0 m) long with a 7.5 ft (2.3 m) wheelbase, and achieved a top speed of 11.2 miles per hour (18.0 km/h) duringApollo 17.
The Lunokhod rovers, and others, usedphotovoltaic solar power. The LRV rovers were battery powered. Lunokhod and the ChineseYutu rovers were furthermore equipped with aradioisotope heater unit to keep instruments warm. These, however, delivered only heat, not electric power. While unlike on other celestial bodies, such as Earth or Mars, there is no atmosphere to interfere with solar power, the extreme length of the day/night cycle complicates the use of solar power as energy storage or hibernation are necessary for any missions exceeding two weeks in length. There areplaces where solar power is almost always available (especially near thelunar south pole) on the Moon, but to date no mission has successfully landed a rover at one of those places.Radioisotope thermoelectric generators can operate independent of the day/night cycle and have been used on missions to other celestial bodies in the past.
The LRV was a four-wheel design. The Lunokhod rovers used eight.
To remain warm during periods of lunar night the Lunokhod rovers used heat from radioactivepolonium-210.[2]
After the unsuccessful launch of itsfirst rover mission in 1969, theSoviet Union sent theLunokhod 1 robotic rover to the lunar surface in November 1970. It remained operational until October 1971.[3] The rover was deployed inMare Imbrium by theLuna 17 lander.Lunokhod 1 was the first rover to land on anothercelestial body.
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was a battery-powered four-wheeled vehicle design. The LRV could carry one or twoastronauts, their equipment, and lunar samples. During 1971 and 1972, LRVs were used on the Moon for each of the final three missions of the AmericanApollo program,Apollo 15,16, and17.
Lunokhod 2 was the second of two monocrystalline-panel-powered uncrewed lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program. TheLuna 21 spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover Lunokhod 2 in January 1973. The objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study thesoil mechanics of the lunar surface material. Lunokhod 2 was intended to be followed byLunokhod 3 (No.205) in 1977 but the mission was cancelled.
Yutu is a Chinese lunar rover that launched on 1 December 2013 and landed on 14 December 2013 as part of theChang'e 3 mission. It is China's first lunar rover, part of the second phase of theChinese Lunar Exploration Program undertaken byChina National Space Administration (CNSA).[4] The lunar rover is calledYutu, orJade Rabbit, a name selected in an online poll.[5]
The rover encountered operational difficulties after the first 14-day lunar night, and was unable to move after the end of the second lunar night, finally on August 3, 2016, it officially stopped sending data and doing its operations.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 by theIndian Space Research Organisation inIndia's second attempt to soft land a rover and a lander on the Moon.Pragyan became the first rover to operate near the Moon's south pole when it successfully landed on 23 August 2023, after the lander separation from propulsion module had taken place on 17 August.[6] ThePragyan rover was deployed the same day as landing and has travelled 0.1 km (0.062 mi) since then. On September 2, the rover finished all assignments and entered into a sleep mode in preparation for wake up on September 22, but was unable to do so.
The SLIM lander has two rovers onboard, Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 (LEV-1) (hopper) and Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2), also known asSora-Q, a tiny rover developed by JAXA in joint cooperation withTomy,Sony Group, andDoshisha University.[7] The first rover has direct-to-Earth communication. The second rover is designed to change its shape to traverse around the landing site over a short lifespan of two hours. SLIM was launched on September 6, 2023, and reached lunar orbit on 25 December 2023. The two rovers were successfully deployed and landed separately from SLIM shortly before its own landing on 19 January 2024.[8] LEV-1 conducted seven hops over 107 minutes on lunar surface and LEV-2 imaged SLIM on lunar surface.[9]
Chinese Chang'e 6sample return mission carries a mini rover calledJinchan to conductinfrared spectroscopy of lunar surface and imaged Chang'e 6 lander on lunar surface.[10]
Chandrayaan-2 was the second lunar mission by India, consisting of a lunar orbiter, a lander namedVikram, and a rover namedPragyan. The rover weighing 27 kg,[11] had six wheels and was to be operated onsolar power.[12] Launched on 22 July 2019, the mission entered lunar orbit on August 20.Pragyan was destroyed along with its lander,Vikram, when it crash-landed on the Moon on 6 September 2019 and never got the chance to deploy.[13][14]
Rashid was a lunar rover built by theMohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) to be launched onboardIspace's lander theHakuto-R. The rover was launched in November 2022 onHakuto-R Mission 1, but was destroyed when the lander crashed in April 2023.[15]Rashid was equipped with two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera to capture small details, and a thermal imaging camera. The rover carried aLangmuir probe, designed to study the Moon's plasma and will attempt to explain why Moon dust is so sticky.[16] The rover was supposed to study the lunar surface, mobility on the Moon's surface and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles.[17]
Sora-Q was developed byTakara Tomy,JAXA andDoshisha University to be launched onboardIspace's lander calledHakuto-R Mission 1. It was launched in 2022, but was destroyed as the lander crash landed in April 2023.[18][19][20] A second rover was successfully deployed from theSLIM lander in January 2024.
Peregrine lander launched on 8 January 2024 to the Moon. It took with it 5Colmena rovers and an Iris rover.[21] The mission of the Peregrine lander was forced to be cancelled after an excessive propellant leak.[22]
The IM-2Athena lander carried a number of rovers to the lunar surface. Micro-NovaGracie was to explore multiple difficult-to-reach areas such as deep craters on the lunar surface, by firinghydrazine rockets in controlled bursts to propel itself short distances. It was to hop across craters in search oflunar ice, which could contain water critical to future crewed missions to the Moon.MAPP LV1 was to collect lunar samples forNASA under a contract worth just $1, which is symbolic of a new incentive for the emerging commercial space industry to access resources in space. It was to also autonomously map the lunar surface, capture stereo images and thermal data, and inspect samples oflunar regolith in a special bin mounted on its wheels.MAPP LV1 was to deploy theAstroAnt miniature rover, the size of a matchbox, to conduct contactless temperature measurements as it drove around on MAPP's roof. Japans'Yaoki rover aimed to test mobility technologies. IM-2 landed on 6 March 2025. The spacecraft was intact after touchdown but resting on its side, thereby complicating its planned science and technology demonstration mission; this outcome is similar to what occurred with the company'sIM-1 Odysseus spacecraft in 2024.[23][24]
TheHakuto-R Mission 2 includes a 5 kg (11 lb) rover called "TENACIOUS", designed and manufactured inLuxembourg which will explore the area around the landing site, after being lowered to the lunar surface from the lander.[25] Landing was expected inMare Frigoris around 6 June 2025.[26] The mission was scheduled to land on Thursday, 5 June, at 19:17 UTC, assuming the primary landing spot in the middle of Mare Frigoris was chosen. If ispace decided to use one of the three backup landing sites, those attempts would occur on different times.[27][28]
According to the live telemetry, it flipped over and died one minute before landing.
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TheChang'e 4 Chinese mission launched on 7 December 2018, and landed and deployed theYutu-2 rover on thefar side of the Moon on 3 January 2019. It is the first rover to operate on the Moon's far side.
In December 2019,Yutu 2 broke the lunar longevity record, previously held by the Soviet Union'sLunokhod 1 rover,[29] which operated on the lunar surface for eleven lunar days (321 Earth days) and traversed a total distance of 10.54 km (6.55 mi).[30]
In February 2020, Chinese astronomers reported, for the first time, a high-resolution image of alunar ejecta sequence[clarification needed], and, as well, direct analysis of its internal architecture. These were based on observations made by theLunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) on board theYutu-2 rover while studying thefar side of the Moon.[31][32]
Data from its two-channelground penetrating radar (GPR) has been used by scientists to put together an image of multiple layers beneath the surface of the far side of the Moon up to a depth of 300 meters.[33]
Yutu-2 is currently operational and is the longest-lived lunar rover to date.[34]
NASA's plans for future Moon missions call for rovers that have a far longer range than the Apollo rovers.[35] TheAll-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) is a six-legged robotic lunar rover test-bed under development by theJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). ATHLETE is a testbed for systems and is designed for use on theMoon.[36] The system is in development along withNASA's Johnson and Ames Centers,Stanford University andBoeing.[37] ATHLETE is designed, for maximum efficiency, to be able to both roll and walk over a wide range of terrains.[36]
TheLunar Polar Exploration Mission is a robotic lunar mission concept byIndian Space Research Organisation and theJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency that would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the south pole region of the Moon in 2028. The Japanese agency is likely to provide the under-development H3 launch vehicle and the rover, while the Indian agency would be responsible for the lander.
Lunokhod 3 was built for aMoon landing in 1977 asLuna 25 but never flew to the Moon due to lack of launchers and funding. It remains at theNPO Lavochkin museum.
They would have been for Apollo 18, 19 and 20. Only the rover for Apollo 18 (LRV-4) was built. After thecancellation of that mission, it was used as spare parts for the previous rovers.[38][39]
Resource Prospector is a cancelled mission concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. The rover was to attempt to detect and map the location of volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen and lunar water which could foster more affordable and sustainable human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and other Solar System bodies.The mission concept was still in its pre-formulation stage when it was scrapped in April 2018. The Resource Prospector mission was proposed to be launched in 2022. Its science instruments will be flown on several commercial lander missions contracted withNASA's newCommercial Lunar Payload Services program.
VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover developed at the NASAAmes Research Center. The rover would be tasked with prospecting forlunar resources inpermanently shadowed areas oflunar south pole region, especially by mapping the distribution and concentration ofwater ice. The mission built on a previous NASA rover concept, theResource Prospector, which had been cancelled in 2018.[40]
VIPER was to be carried aboard Astrobotic'sGriffin lander as part of NASA'sCommercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.[41]
In 2025, NASA released an Announcement for Partnership Proposal seeking U.S. companies to deliver and operate the completed VIPER rover on the Moon.[42] On September 19, 2025, NASA selectedBlue Origin to carry VIPER to the Moon.[43]
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