Hadley Rille as seen from orbit during the Apollo 15 mission. Credit: NASA via Retro Space Images
Therefore, the length of rope needed is
The weight of the rope is
In other words, the rope is almost 2,300 feet long and
weighs over 150 pounds!
The slope of the rille face is
Conclusion
The slope being way less than 45º implies that there
would not have been too much of a problem traversing it, especially in a one- ixth Earth gravity environment.
s
However, even though the trip to the bottom and back
was technically feasible and scientifically desirable,
we’re not quite sure it would have been worth the 70 kilograms (yikes!) of rope needed to complete the journey.
Maybe NASA made the right call after all?
37
www.RocketSTEM .org 37