9:36 PM ET, December 12, 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt braked to a halt at the edge of an ancient crater near the moon’s north pole. Miles from their spaceship, they had travelled further than any astronaut before them and now stood at the very farthest extreme mankind had ever ventured. Nearly fifty years later, no human has surpassed them, yet their names and the marvelous machine that enabled their achievement are all but forgotten. But Apollo 11 was but a prelude to what came later: while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trod a sliver of flat lunar desert smaller than a football field, Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each commanded a mountainous area the size of Manhattan. All told, their crews traveled fifty-six miles, and brought deep science and a far more swashbuckling style of exploration to the moon. In this fast-moving exploration of the rover and the adventures it ignited, Earl Swift puts the reader alongside the men who dreamed of driving on the moon, designed and built the rover, troubleshot its flaws, and drove it on the moon’s surface.