Apollo 15 to Mons Hadley Delta, by rover

Apollo 15 to Mons Hadley Delta

14.1 km

Along the terrain route between the endpoints, searched at 474 m resolution.

Direct line: 12.6 km, untimed (2.33 km beyond the limit). Terrain route: 14.1 km, about 6 h 48 min, avoids 2.3 km of slopes past the limit.

From the Falcon's landing site to the mapped centre of Mons Hadley Delta, the Apennine Front massif that rises about 4,000 m above the plain. The crew drove to its lower slopes twice, near St. George crater on the first traverse and at Spur crater on the second, and no one climbed it: the last kilometres of this route run up the mountain as a computed line, not as a track anyone drove. IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, Mons Hadley Delta; NASA, Apollo 15 ("Hadley Delta in the background rises approximately 4,000 meters above the plain"); NSSDCA, Apollo 15 (the first traverse "near St. George Crater", the second "along the base of the Appenine Mountains near ... Spur craters"); Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, Geology Station 2 on Mt. Hadley Delta; Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, The Genesis Rock (Station 7 at Spur)

Travel time, estimated

Apollo rover:: About 2 h 22 min, estimateddirect lineSource: NSSDCA, The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle; Apollo 15 Mission Report (MSC-05161, 1971); Apollo 17 Mission Report (JSC-07904, 1973)
On foot:: About 6 h 48 min, estimatedterrain routeSource: Eppler et al., Lunar highland terrain walking EVA operations (LPSC 2025, abstract 2023)
VIPER:: About 34 h 42 min, estimateddirect line3.14 km of this route is steeper than 15 degrees and is not timed.Source: NASA, VIPER rover and instruments (science.nasa.gov, 2023)

Assumptions, on foot:

The route was searched on the NASA LRO LOLA elevation model at 474 m resolution, the tier used for this route.
It avoids slopes steeper than 20 degrees at that resolution only: every slope is a mean over 474 m samples, so a steeper stretch inside one sample is not seen.
It does not account for craters, boulders, shadow, or anything smaller than 474 m across.
Travel time only, not a mission duration: continuous travel with no stops, rest, recharging, communication passes or lighting constraints.
Level-ground speed 4.40 km/h: the level-ground walking speed Apollo 14 EVA planning used (4 ft/s, 1.2 m/s); slopes were planned at 2.2 km/h.
Tobler's hiking function shape, speed = base x exp(-3.5 tan|slope|), pinned to the Apollo planning speed on the flat and applied to the absolute slope so a descent earns no bonus (Tobler's terrestrial peak on a gentle downhill is dropped). At 8 degrees this gives 2.7 km/h against the 2.2 km/h Apollo planned for slopes and the 2.6 to 3.3 km/h measured on the Apollo 16 station 11 climb.
Segments steeper than 20 degrees are not timed: the steepest slopes Apollo crews worked on foot (about 20 degrees at Apollo 17 station 6); not a physical limit, segments beyond it are flagged as steeper than any Apollo walking traverse.

Elevation profile

Ascent: 2,746 m
Descent: 0 m
Max slope: 19.1°
Elevation: -1,924 to 822 m
Elevation data: LOLA, 474 m samples
In daylight: 12.6 of 12.6 km as of 00:06 UTC, computed when this page was served

Elevation sampled every 474 m from the NASA LRO LOLA model, so local slopes are smoothed and the steep flags are optimistic. Heights are above the 1,737.4 km sphere. Daylight is the Sun above a smooth horizon, computed along the great circle. The map and the elevation chart load with JavaScript.

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