Tartarus Scopulus
What Tartarus Scopulus is
Tartarus Scopulus is a scopulus — an irregular scarp — on Mars, 251 km across, centred at 4.2° S, 177.3° E in the Aeolis quadrangle. It is the 353rd largest named feature on Mars and the 10th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Named for albedo feature at 12S, 182W. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1985, under the theme it applies to every scopulus on Mars. Of the 13 features of this class catalogued on Mars, the naming categories run Latin (6), Greek (6), Roman (1).
What it would take to settle Tartarus Scopulus
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 4.2° S, 177.3° E.
What this spot has going for it is sunlight — 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Mars gets. What works against it is water — outside the ice-bearing latitudes.
Computed from Tartarus Scopulus'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 scopulus features on Mars
All 13 scopuli on Mars — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.