Coffee at the Cosmo: Apollo’s Amazing Folding Rover: Stories of the Sturdy LRV
Date: Thursday, March 16, 2023, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Location: Cosmosphere’s Banquet Room
This informative community gathering over coffee features guest speakers offering insight into STEM and space topics. Coffee at the Cosmo is free and open to the public.
In March, Cosmosphere’s curator Shannon Whetzel shares her newly rekindled enthusiasm for what may be the most under-appreciated piece of Apollo-era technology: the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV.
A foldable marvel affectionately known as the “Moon buggy,” the LRV allowed Apollo 15, 16, and 17 astronauts to push the frontier of human exploration by traversing a mountainous area on the Moon the size of Manhattan.
Earl Swift, author of “Across the Airless Wilds,” describes the LRV as “an electric go-cart that folded like a business letter, weighed less than eighty pounds in the Moon’s reduced gravity, and muscled its way up mountains, around craters, and over undulating plains” (you can purchase the book in the Cosmosphere Gift Store).
Whetzel will share important discoveries enabled by the LRV and will talk about what excites her about Cosmosphere’s LRV exhibit.
Coffee at the Cosmo can be enjoyed in-person at the Cosmosphere or live online via Zoom from anywhere!
