The lunar rover sits in its final parking place, seen in this composite image made on August 3, 1971.
On their final day on the moon, the commander, David Scott, parked the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) a short distance from the lunar module (LM) landing craft, positioning it so the television camera on the front pointed toward the LM to monitor its liftoff in a couple of hours.
The light-colored square on the ground behind the rover is a small plaque, placed by Commander Scott, inscribed with the names of 14 astronauts and cosmonauts known to have died while developing human space flight. Before he left, Scott also placed a small Bible with a red cover on the control panel of the rover, just visible in this image. #NASA
built by Boeing, each LRV has a mass of 460 pounds (210 kg) without payload. It could carry a maximum payload of 1,080 pounds (490 kg), including two astronauts, equipment, and lunar samples, and was designed for a top speed of 8 miles per hour (13 km/h), although it achieved a top speed of 11.2 miles per hour (18.0 km/h) on its last mission, Apollo 17.
Each LRV was carried to the Moon folded up in the Lunar Module's Quadrant 1 Bay. After being unpacked, each was driven an average of 30 km, without major incident. These three LRVs remain on the Moon.