A prototype lunar rover sold to an Alabama scrapyard last year has been found and saved by the owner of the junkyard, who reportedly recognized the value of the priceless moon buggy and set it aside to restore it to its former glory.
Motherboard broke the news of the lunar buggy’s sale, citing documents obtained by the website through a Freedom of Information Act request. According to redacted documents from NASA’s lost and stolen property division, the Office of the Inspector General, the prototype, which was designed as part of the Apollo missions, had been sold to the junkyard for scrap metal.
The rover, believed to have been destroyed, was a Local Scientific Survey Module designed, built, and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in 1965 and 1966, the report indicated. It had been spotted in the backyard of the Blountsville, Alabama resident who sold it by a US Air Force Historian. That individual alerted NASA in February 2014, but the agency did not act fast enough and the buggy had been sold (and believed to be destroyed) by December of that year.
The historian “stated he was visiting his mother when he noticed the rover in the backyard of a neighbor across the street,” the Office of the Inspector General wrote in one report, according to Motherboard. When NASA finally got around to tracking down the rover, however, they found that it “had been sold for scrap after [its previous owner] had passed away.”
Lunar rover remains may be auctioned off
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending, as the scrapyard owner who purchased the rover knew what it was did not use it for scrap metal after all. The person, who asked to remain anonymous, told collectSPACE that the buggy had not been scrapped and had instead been placed in storage at his facility.
He said that NASA may have closed the incident because of his desire to sell, and not donate, the rover—which, according to reports, is in pretty rough shape. While the rubber tires and the metal frame remain intact, the buggy appears to be missing the antenna dish that was once mounted on top of its roof, as well as the driving controls and the seat used during its operation.
Even so, “in the right hands, it could be restored—at least aesthetically, to represent the role it played in the development of the Apollo lunar roving vehicle in a museum or other appropriate venue,” collectSPACE editor Robert Pearlman told Mashable.
The owner has announced his intention to sell what remains of the rover, but said that he has to first consult his attorney. If it does go up for auction, Pearlman told Mashable that he could see it “possibly selling for several hundred to several thousand dollars.”
So if you’ve ever wanted to own an important piece of space exploration history, you may soon have your chance. Just make sure you’ve got your checkbook with you.
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Feature Image: NASA
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