Moon Lunokhod 0 (No.201) The Soviet rover was intended to be the first roving remote-controlled
robot on the
Moon, but crashed during a failed start of the launcher 19 February 1969.
Lunokhod 1 Lunar Rover|235x235px The
Lunokhod 1 rover landed on the Moon in November 1970. It was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on any celestial body. The
Soviet Union launched Lunokhod 1 aboard the
Luna 17 spacecraft on November 10, 1970, and it entered lunar orbit on November 15. The spacecraft soft-landed in the
Sea of Rains region on November 17. The lander had dual ramps from which Lunokhod 1 could descend to the lunar surface, which it did at 06:28 UT. From November 17, 1970, to November 22, 1970, the rover drove 197 m, and during 10 communication sessions returned 14 close up pictures of the Moon and 12 panoramic views. It also analyzed the lunar soil. The last successful communications session with Lunokhod 1 was on September 14, 1971, having operated for 11 months.
Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle NASA included
Lunar Roving Vehicles in three
Apollo missions:
Apollo 15 (which landed on the Moon July 30, 1971),
Apollo 16 (which landed April 21, 1972), and
Apollo 17 (which landed December 11, 1972).
Lunokhod 2 lunar rover The
Lunokhod 2 was the second of two uncrewed lunar rovers landed on the
Moon by the
Soviet Union as part of the
Lunokhod program. The rover became operational on the
Moon on January 16, 1973. It was the second roving remote-controlled
robot to land on any celestial body. The
Soviet Union launched Lunokhod 2 aboard the
Luna 21 spacecraft on January 8, 1973, and the spacecraft soft-landed in the eastern edge of the
Mare Serenitatis region on January 15, 1973. Lunokhod 2 descended from the lander's dual ramps to the lunar surface at 01:14 UT on January 16, 1973. Lunokhod 2 operated for about four months, covered of terrain, including hilly
upland areas and
rilles, and sent back 86 panoramic images and over 80,000 TV pictures. Based on wheel rotations Lunokhod 2 was thought to have covered but Russian scientists at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) have revised that to an estimated distance of about based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (
LRO) images of the lunar surface. Subsequent discussions with their American counterparts ended with an agreed-upon final distance of , which has stuck since.
Lunokhod 3 The Soviet rover was intended to be the third roving remote-controlled robot on the Moon in 1977. The mission was canceled due to lack of launcher availability and funding, although the rover was built.
Yutu '' rover on lunar surface
Chang'e 3 is a Chinese Moon mission that includes a robotic rover
Yutu, named after the pet rabbit of
Chang'e, the goddess of the Moon in Chinese mythology. Launched in 2013 with the
Chang'e 3 mission, it is China's first lunar rover, the first soft landing on the Moon since 1976 and the first rover to operate there since the Soviet
Lunokhod 2 ceased operations on 11 May 1973. It was deployed on the Moon on December 14, 2013, and the rover encountered operational difficulties toward the end of the second lunar day after surviving and recovering successfully the first 14-day lunar night (about a month on the Moon), and was unable to move after the end of the second lunar night, though it continued to gather useful information for some months afterward. In October 2015,
Yutu set the record for the longest operational period for a rover on the Moon. On 31 July 2016,
Yutu ceased to operate after a total of 31 months, well beyond its original expected lifespan of three months.
Pragyan (Chandrayaan-2 rover) Chandrayaan-2 was the second lunar mission by India, consisting of a lunar orbiter, a lander named
Vikram, and a rover named
Pragyan. The rover weighing 27 kg, had six wheels and was to be operated on
solar power. 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.
Rashid Rashid was a lunar rover built by
MBRSC to be launched onboard
Ispace's lander called Hakuto-R. The rover was launched in November 2022, but was destroyed as the lander crash landed in April 2023. It was equipped with two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera to capture small details, and a thermal imaging camera. The rover carried a
Langmuir probe, designed to study the Moon's plasma and will attempt to explain why Moon dust is so sticky.
SORA-Q (Hakuto-R Mission 1 rover) Takara Tomy,
JAXA and
Doshisha University made a rover to be launched onboard
Ispace's lander called Hakuto-R. It was launched in 2022, but was destroyed as the lander crash landed in April 2023.
Pragyan (Chandrayaan-3 rover) Chandrayaan-3 is a mission by India's space agency (
ISRO), consisting of a lunar lander and the
Pragyan rover. It was a re-attempt to demonstrate soft landing, following the failure of
Chandrayaan-2's
Vikram lander. It was launched on 14 July 2023 on the
LVM-3 launch vehicle and has soft landed near south pole of the Moon August 23 at 6.04 PM IST. The 26 kg 6 wheeled rover
Pragyan has descend from lander belly, on to the Moon's surface, using one of its side panels as a ramp. The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its course of its mobility. The rover was deployed on 23 August and was put into sleep mode after completing all its objectives on 3 September. It later died during that lunar night.
Peregrine Mission One Peregrine launched towards the Moon on 8 January 2024, taking with it 5
Colmena rovers and a
Iris rover. After separation from the launch vehicle a fault occurred preventing it from completing its mission. The spacecraft instead returned to
Earth's atmosphere, where it disintegrated on 18 January.
SLIM rovers The SLIM lander has two rovers onboard, Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 (LEV-1) (hopper) and Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2), a tiny rover developed by JAXA in joint cooperation with
Tomy,
Sony Group, and
Doshisha University. 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. They two rovers were successfully deployed and landed separately from SLIM shortly before it own landing on 19 January 2024. LEV-1 conducted six hops on lunar surface and LEV-2 imaged SLIM lander on lunar surface.
Jinchan The Chang'e 6
sample return mission carried a rover called
Jinchan to conduct
infrared spectroscopy of lunar surface.
Jinchan was also used to image the Chang'e 6 lander on lunar surface.
IM-2 Athena Rovers The IM-2
Athena lander carried a number of rovers to lunar surface, including MAPP LV1, Micro-Nova
Gracie, the AstroAnt miniature rover and the Japanese
Yaoki. The lander was intact after touchdown but resting on its side. The rovers were not deployed.
TENACIOUS The
Hakuto-R Mission 2 was developed by the Japanese company
ispace and launched on 15 January 2025. It included a rover called "TENACIOUS", designed and manufactured in
Luxembourg, to be lowered to the lunar surface from the lander and explore the area around the landing site. During the lunar landing on 5 June 2025, the lander lost communications approximately 90 seconds before touchdown and crashed on the surface.
Mars PrOP-M The Soviet
Mars 2 and
Mars 3 landers each had a small 4.5 kg
PrOP-M rover on board, which would have moved across the surface on
skis while connected to the lander with a 15-meter umbilical. Two small metal rods were used for autonomous obstacle avoidance, as radio signals from Earth would have taken too long to drive the rovers using remote control. The rover was planned to be placed on the surface after landing by a manipulator arm and to move in the field of view of the television cameras and stop to make measurements every 1.5 meters. The rover tracks in the Martian soil would also have been recorded to determine material properties. Because of the crash landing of Mars 2 and the communication failure (15 seconds post landing) of Mars 3, neither rover was deployed.
Marsokhod The
Marsokhod was a Soviet rover (hybrid, with both controls
telecommand and automatic) aimed at Mars, part of the
Mars 4NM and scheduled to commence after 1973 (according to the plans of 1970). It was to be launched by a
N1 rocket, which never flew successfully.
Sojourner '' on Mars in 1997 The
Mars Pathfinder mission included
Sojourner, the first rover to successfully deploy on another planet.
NASA launched Mars Pathfinder on 4 December 1996; it landed on Mars in a region called
Chryse Planitia on 4 July 1997. From its landing until the final data transmission on 27 September 1997, Mars Pathfinder returned 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from
Sojourner, as well as data from more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.
Zhurong Zhurong rover was a Chinese Mars rover operated by
CNSA.It was launched from
Wenchang by a
Long March 5 carrier rocket on 23 July 2020, 23:18 UTC. It deployed successfully on Mars at 22 May 2021, 02:40 UTC. It was designed for 90sols (93 Earth days), and operated for 347sols (356.5 Earth days) and travelled 1.921Km/1.194Mi.The rover was deactivated on 20 May 2022 due to an approaching sandstorm and Martian winter, waiting to be self-reactivation during favorable condition.
Zhurong was expected to reactivate in December 2022, but due to excessive dust accumulation on the solar panel, the rover could not wake itself. On 25 April 2023, chief designer Zhang Rongqiao indicated that the rover could be inactive "forever". == Active rover missions ==