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Phobos · Crater · 15th largest named feature

Limtoc

General in Lilliput who prepared articles of impeachment against Gulliver in Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels."

What Limtoc is

Limtoc is a crater — a circular depression, almost always an impact scar — on Phobos, 2 km across, centred at 11.0° S, 54.0° W. It is the 15th largest named feature on Phobos and the 12th largest of its class there.

Where the name comes from

General in Lilliput who prepared articles of impeachment against Gulliver in Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels." The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 2006, under the theme it applies to every crater on Phobos. Of the 17 features of this class catalogued on Phobos, the naming categories run Ireland (8), American (5), France (1), Germany (1).

Feature class
a circular depression, almost always an impact scar
Diameter
2 km
about 2.0 times a 10-minute walk
Coordinates
11.0° S, 54.0° W
Planetocentric, on Phobos
Name approved
2006
By the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
Naming category
Ireland
Europe

What it would take to settle Limtoc

Phobos scores 48.7 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 11.0° S, 54.0° W.

Settlement difficulty here
47.1/ 100
Typical for this world
Phobos overall
48.7
1.6 easier than the median site
Ranked
7th
of 20 named places on Phobos

What this spot has going for it is sunlight 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Phobos gets. What works against it is water same as everywhere else on this world.

Computed from Limtoc'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 Phobos (radiation geometry, earth link, known ground). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Phobos 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 Phobos

All 17 craters on Phobos — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.