Deuteronilus Mensae
What Deuteronilus Mensae is
Deuteronilus Mensae is a mensa — a flat-topped elevation with cliff-like edges — on Mars, 919 km across, centred at 45.1° N, 23.9° E in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. It is the 92nd largest named feature on Mars and the 3rd largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
From albedo feature at 35N, 355W. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1973, under the theme it applies to every mensa on Mars. Of the 38 features of this class catalogued on Mars, the naming categories run Greek (19), Latin (14), Roman (3), Slovenia (1).
What it would take to settle Deuteronilus Mensae
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 45.1° N, 23.9° E.
What this spot has going for it is temperature — about -67 °C mean at this latitude. What works against it is ground — mixed ground — a rim, a floor and slopes between them.
Computed from Deuteronilus Mensae'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 mensa features on Mars
All 38 mensae on Mars — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.