This is the new Lego Technic NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle, better known simply as the Lunar Rover or the Moon Buggy. It was carried aboard the final three missions of the Apollo program to the Moon – Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17.
The Lunar Rover allowed astronauts to cover far more ground than they would ever be able to on foot. Each one was built by Boeing, a company far more used to building aircraft and spacecraft, and the Moon Buggy had a top speed of 6 mph (9.7 km/h). That said, on the Apollo 17 mission, the astronauts managed to get it up to a blistering 11.2 mph (18.0 km/h).
Above Video: This is the original archival film from NASA in the early 1970s, that tells the story of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), how it was developed, and it includes footage of it in action on the Moon.
“The Lunar Rover proved to be the reliable, safe and flexible lunar exploration vehicle we expected it to be. Without it, the major scientific discoveries of Apollo 15, 16, and 17 would not have been possible; and our current understanding of lunar evolution would not have been possible.” – Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut
The Lego Technic NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle is a surprisingly detailed model of the Moon Buggy, it’s large too, measuring in at over 5.5 inches (14 cm) high, 15 inches (38 cm) long, and 10 inches (25 cm) wide.
It is made up of 1,913 pieces and it’s recommended as a kit for adults, though there are plenty of enterprising teenagers under 18 who’ll have no problem with it.
The set comes with three equipment sets, these are based on the three real Lunar Rovers, and include items like the cameras, transmitters, and scientific experiments they had onboard. It also comes with a model of the battery pack, including the heating and cooling elements, tools including a shovel and a drill, and a model of Apollo 17’s Traverse Gravimeter Experiment.
This large Lego Moon Buggy model even folds up in the same way as the original did for transport from the Earth to the Lunar surface.
The kit sells directly from Lego for $339.90 USD and there are a limit of five per customer due to the surge in demand surrounding this model.
Images courtesy of Lego
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