Tvashtar Paterae
What Tvashtar Paterae is
Tvashtar Paterae is a patera — an irregular or scalloped-edged crater, usually volcanic — on Io, 305 km across, centred at 62.8° N, 123.5° W. It is the 36th largest named feature on Io and the 1st largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Indian sun god and smith who forged the thunderbolt of the thunder god Indra. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 2000, under the theme it applies to every patera on Io. Of the 170 features of this class catalogued on Io, the naming categories run Japan (9), Celtic (8), India (6), China (6).
What it would take to settle Tvashtar Paterae
Io scores 76.7 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 62.8° N, 123.5° W.
What this spot has going for it is ground — mixed ground — a rim, a floor and slopes between them. What works against it is water — same as everywhere else on this world.
Computed from Tvashtar Paterae's catalogued latitude, longitude and feature class — 84% of the model's weight had a basis here, and 2 axes were dropped as not applicable to Io (earth link, known ground). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Io 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 patera features on Io
All 170 paterae on Io — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.