RocketSTEM Issue #12 - July 2015 | Page 29

their course on the map, but had difficulty identifying their route because they were uncertain of precisely where they had set Falcon down. However, Mount Hadley Delta was clear to see, with St. George Crater— an enormous gouge the size of two dozen football fields—on the lowermost slopes and all they had to do was drive with it on their port quarter and they knew that eventually they would come upon the rille. Cresting the top of a ridge, they were rewarded with their first unearthly glimpse of Hadley Rille and gained a clear awareness of its enormous size. Half an hour after leaving Falcon, they made their first scheduled halt at a place called “Elbow Crater”, right on the rim of the rille at the base of the mountain. From here, Scott took a series of pictures of the far side of Hadley Rille, whose interior wall showed clear evidence of layering in outcrops not far below its rim, and th RGv