In these days, there is much discussion about Chandrayaan-3, which is currently operational in the lunar orbit. It will gather a lot of information about the Moon for India, which has generated a great deal of excitement among people. However, did you know that a person has driven a ‘car’ on the Moon? His name is David Randolph Scott.
David Scott spent 546 hours and 54 minutes of his life in space. In 1971, he was part of the Apollo 15 mission from the United States to the Moon, where he became the first person to drive a vehicle on the lunar surface. He didn’t drive an ordinary car, though; he operated the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), a specially designed vehicle to assist in lunar exploration.
Scott was born on June 6, 1932. On July 31, 1971, he drove a vehicle on the Moon for the first time. He became the seventh person to set foot on the Moon, as he served as the Commander of the Apollo 15 mission.
Apollo 15 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 26, 1971, at 9:34 AM local time. After about a 4-day journey, it landed near the foothills of the Apennine Mountains, not far from a feature named Hadley Rille.
David Scott operated the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) that was used during the mission. Each wheel of the LRV had a 200W electric motor, allowing it to travel at speeds of 10 to 12 km/h. Any member of the team could have operated it, but the responsibility was given to Commander David Scott.
With the Lunar Roving Vehicle, the Apollo 15 crew covered about 28 km on three separate excursions along different routes. On August 7, they returned to Earth.
Source: https://aavkarnews.in/index.php/2023/08/22/the-person-who-on-the-moon/?fbclid=IwAR3PWlcC7cD4LVKYBcu7giidOkgZlyN2h2EYNxT1g7IwsPYjXxZdgMdLAxU
