Al Kuz
What Al Kuz is
Al Kuz is a crater — a circular depression, almost always an impact scar — on Enceladus, 10.2 km across, centred at 18.9° S, 178.7° W. It is the 74th largest named feature on Enceladus and the 42nd largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
The barberâs fourth brother in âThe Hunchbackâs Tale.â The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 2006, under the theme it applies to every crater on Enceladus.
What it would take to settle Al Kuz
Enceladus scores 54.8 as a world. That number is the same for every square metre of it — but sunlight, water, radiation and the ground under your feet are not. This is the same question asked at 18.9° S, 178.7° W.
What this spot has going for it is water — same as everywhere else on this world. What works against it is temperature — about -194 °C mean at this latitude.
Computed from Al Kuz's catalogued latitude, longitude and feature class — 68% of the model's weight had a basis here, and 3 axes were dropped as not applicable to Enceladus (radiation geometry, earth link, known ground). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Enceladus and are already counted in the world's own index, not again here.
What this cannot see: elevation. Slope, local shadowing and the polar “peaks of eternal light” — ridge tops near the poles of a barely tilted world that catch sun almost continuously while a crater floor kilometres away never does — need a terrain model this does not have. Where a real mission targets a pole, that is usually why.
What is next to it
The largest crater features on Enceladus
All 53 craters on Enceladus — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.