Cerberus Fossae
What Cerberus Fossae is
Cerberus Fossae is a fossa — a long, narrow depression — on Mars, 1,235 km across, centred at 11.3° N, 166.4° E in the Elysium quadrangle. It is the 60th largest named feature on Mars and the 10th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
From albedo feature at 10n, 212W. Changed from Cerberus Rupes. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1997, under the theme it applies to every fossa on Mars. Of the 61 features of this class catalogued on Mars, the naming categories run Greek (32), Latin (22), Egypt (2), China (2).
What it would take to settle Cerberus Fossae
Mars scores 26.6 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 11.3° N, 166.4° E.
What this spot has going for it is sunlight — 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Mars gets. What works against it is water — outside the ice-bearing latitudes.
Computed from Cerberus Fossae's catalogued latitude, longitude and feature class — 74% of the model's weight had a basis here, and 2 axes were dropped as not applicable to Mars (radiation geometry, earth link). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Mars 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 fossa features on Mars
All 61 fossae on Mars — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.