The Soviet Lunokhod 1 became the first rover to drive on another world

On November 17, 1970, the Soviet Luna 17 spacecraft set down in the Moon’s Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Rains, and rolled out an eight-wheeled robot named Lunokhod 1. It was the first remote-controlled rover to operate on another world.

Shaped like a wheeled bathtub with a hinged convex lid, the 1,667-pound machine was steered from Earth by a five-person crew who watched through its slow television feeds and nudged it across the regolith, coping with a radio delay each way.

Built to last three lunar days, it survived eleven, outliving every expectation.

Over some 322 Earth days it traveled about 10.5 kilometers, returned more than 20,000 images, and tested the soil hundreds of times. Half a century later, its onboard laser reflector still bounces beams back to Earth, quietly measuring the Moon’s distance.