Astronomy Picture of the Day site

The images on this NASA site are spectacular, usually of newly produced images of asteroids with moons or sights from the "Space Ship One", or deep space shots. This one is retro-space, from 1972, when I was driving my Honda 600 Coupe on earth (see post below). The image and description follow:


Apollo 17's Lunar Rover
Credit: Apollo 17, NASA (Image scanned by Kipp Teague)
Explanation: In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours exploring the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Cernan and Schmitt were the last humans to walk or ride on the Moon - aided in their explorations by a Lunar Roving Vehicle. The skeletal-looking lunar rover was just over 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and easily carried astronauts, equipment, and rock samples in the Moon's low gravity (about 1/6 Earth's). In this picture, Cernan stands at the back of the rover which carried the two astronauts in lawn-chair style seats. An umbrella-shaped high gain antenna and TV camera are mounted in the front. Powered by four 1/4 horsepower electric motors, one for each wheel, this rover was driven a total of about 18 miles across the lunar surface. Its estimated top speed was a blazing 8 miles per hour.