Lunokhod 1 became the first wheeled vehicle to operate on another world.
The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 on the Moon on 17 November 1970 as part of the Luna 17 mission. Operators on Earth remotely drove the eight-wheeled rover across the lunar surface, making it the first successful mobile vehicle on another celestial body. It carried television cameras, scientific instruments, a laser reflector, and equipment for studying lunar soil.
Lunokhod 1 worked for about eleven months, far longer than its planned three-month mission. It travelled roughly 10.5 kilometres and transmitted tens of thousands of television images. The mission is sometimes mixed up with Lunokhod 2, which landed in 1973 and travelled farther. NASA’s Sojourner was the first successful rover on Mars, but it operated more than a quarter-century after Lunokhod 1.