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Detail of the control & display console.

Since the moon lacks a significant magnetic field, an Earth-type compass would not work. Therefore, the LRV's navigation system used a gyro to determine the LRV's direction relative to the Lunar Module; another instrument measured the distance traveled. In this way, the on-board computer could perform dead reckoning so that the astronauts always knew the shortest route to the Lunar Module, should it become necessary to make an unscheduled return.