Apollo 17 LRV Fenders

The museum displays segment from the Apollo 17's Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

While preparing the LRV for its first traverse, mission commander Gene Cernan famously caught a fender on a hammer in his pocket, ripping the fender off the rover. Without the fender, lunar dust sprayed over the astronauts and their equipment; the lunar dust interfered with some of the equipment's thermal control systems, jeopardizing part of the mission.

During the rest period between the first and second EVAs, ground controllers devised a way to implement a makeshift fender using lunar maps and duct tape, which the crew constructed and attached to the LRV. The mission was completed successfully.

The museum repackaged the fenders sometime between my 2008 and 2016 visits, and photos from both displays appear hear.