Tempe Fossae
What Tempe Fossae is
Tempe Fossae is a fossa — a long, narrow depression — on Mars, 2,116 km across, centred at 40.4° N, 71.4° W in the Arcadia quadrangle. It is the 22nd largest named feature on Mars and the 3rd largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
From albedo feature at 40N, 70W. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1973, 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 Tempe 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 40.4° N, 71.4° W.
What this spot has going for it is known ground — 1,589 km from Viking 1 (1976). What works against it is water — outside the ice-bearing latitudes.
Computed from Tempe 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.