Along the terrain route between the endpoints, searched at 474 m resolution.
Direct line: 12.6 km, about 3 h 38 min. Terrain route: 13.5 km, about 2 h 26 min.
Terrain resolution: about 474 m, the LOLA terrain tier around the Apollo landing sites; the model does not include boulders or other surface hazards. How the routing works
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
Assumptions, Apollo rover:
- 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 25 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 8.29 km/h: total distance driven over total driving time on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 (27.8 km in 3 h 02 min, 26.7 km in 3 h 26 min, 35.9 km in 4 h 26 min).
- Speed interpolated between the handbook's smooth-mare capability at 0, 5 and 10 degrees, the Apollo 17 report's 4 to 5 km/h at 20 degrees, and zero at 25 degrees, scaled so the flat speed is the typical traverse speed. The same reduction is applied downhill (descents were driven in braking mode), which is an assumption.
- Segments steeper than 25 degrees are not timed: design slope; the steepest slopes actually reported were 18 degrees up and 20 degrees down (Apollo 17) and about 20 degrees (Apollo 16).
Elevation profile
- Ascent
- 2,746 m
- Descent
- 0 m
- Max slope
- 20.1°
- Elevation
- -1,924 to 822 m
- Elevation data
- LOLA, 474 m samples
- In daylight
- 0.00 of 12.6 km as of 07:23 UTC, computed when this page was served
Leaving now, you would be in night the whole way. Apollo rover, estimated; the departure is the time this page was served (2026-11-11 07:23 UTC), smooth horizon, no relief, travel time with no stops.
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.
Waypoints, first 2 of 2
| Cell, ACC at entry | km | Elev. m | Hdg | Leg km |
|---|
| 23RJS23R JS Y85 T01 | 0.00 | -1,924 | 187° | 9.89 |
| 23RKS23R KS -23 H89 | 9.89 | -115 | 142° | 3.62 |