Moon buggy model found in Alabama scrapyard is ready for auction (al.com)

By Lee Roop | lroop@al.com
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on April 08, 2016 at 1:53 PM, updated April 08, 2016 at 1:54 PM

A 1960s-era lunar rover prototype built in Huntsville and discovered last year in an Alabama scrapyard will be sold at auction this month. The owner and auction house estimate it will bring at least $125,000.

The prototype, also called the Local Scientific Survey Module, was built in 1965-66 by Brown Engineering {in Huntsville} and is known as the "Brown LSSM."

Wernher von Braun was photographed driving the vehicle, and one of von Braun's team says it also flew on NASA's Zero G aircraft for testing. It was one of numerous rover prototypes and models of various sizes developed during the Apollo program and never flew in space. It was apparently disposed of as surplus.

Current owner Johnny Worley says he bought the vehicle from its original owner in Blountsville, Ala., where it was sitting in the owner's backyard. The vehicle drew a flurry of media interest when it was spotted in Worley's scrapyard in 2015.

NASA briefly tried to recover it, but ultimately closed the files. &quot NASA's) not at fault for not saving it," NASA lunar rover team member Otha Vaughan told AL.com in October. "They didn't care about it, and that was it. It wasn't a piece of flight hardware, per se. That's the difference."


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more (incl. contact info for bid 4/14-4/21): http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2016/04/the_moon_buggy_prototype_kept.html