Though the U.S. has called off its program of lunar exploration, Russian interest in the moon shows no sign of waning. Last week, only a month after the final visit of American astronauts to the moon, the Soviets successfully landed their second unmanned lunar rover in two years. Looking like an old-fashioned washtub sitting atop eight small wheels, Lunokhod (moonwalker) 2 rolled down the gangplank of its lander and parked itself in a mountainous region at the edge of the Sea of Serenity, only about 100 miles from Apollo 17's Taurus-Littrow base.
Under the direction of the same earth-bound "driver" who...