I had the honour to meet Commander David Scott at the premiere of "In the Shadow of the Moon" at Sundance and got into a discussion with him on the status of the rover at the Apollo 15 site. A point he made has been buzzing in my mind ever since. He said, "the rover is sitting there ready to go again, All you would need is to plug in a new battery and drive it off."




Here is a possible future Luna Mission One mission:

Land a simple robot rover at one of the J-mission landing sites nearby the VIP site. The robot will drive to the Apollo rover, connect a new battery, and then climb onto the rover. Next connect to the hand controller either mechanically or electrically and drive off!

I understand that NASA has developed some rules on how missions that visit Apollo sites are to treat the remaining artifacts and capturing the rover would violate these rules. However, think of the impact of this mission for science, NASA, human interest, killing off the stupid hoax meme, American pride, etc. Special permission could be granted for one site, or NASA could run the mission itself.

With the control of the original Apollo rover, the whole nearby area could be explored as a start, revisiting original stops and gathering additional visual data. Then, with the help of solar panels brought with the robot, the new battery can be repeatedly recharged, leading to long-range exploration of the moon.

With the relatively cheap cost of the robot landing mission, the capability would be an incredible value for money.



Imagine if this mission happens while one of the astronauts who drove on the rover was still alive!

A very interesting idea.
I think your right about NASA, it would need to have their approval but if given and Lunar Mission 2 is perhaps in the vicinity then why not?
I'm sure a foldable (for storage) robot type could be designed to achieve this and paired with a camera then the Apollo Rover could be once again re-started for another mission of discovery.

It's sitting there doing nothing and just so long as it's not misused will always have a place on the Moon...I think it's a FUN & rather GOOD idea.