The most viable places on Venus
All 1,985 named places on Venus, scored one coordinate at a time on sunlight, water, radiation, temperature, ground and access — then ranked. Navka Planitia comes out first.
Venus as a whole rates 43/100 to settle, and that single number is the same for every square metre of it. It is also the wrong number for a mission, because sunlight, water, radiation dose and the ground itself all change with where you stand. The ranking below re-asks the question at each of 1,985 catalogued coordinates and reports the difference from the median site — so a score of 43 here means “typical for Venus”, not “good”.
Water on Venus: No water in any form at the surface, at any latitude.
Ground truth: 5 spacecraft have landed on Venus, and proximity to one counts toward a site's score — known bearing strength and slopes are worth real risk reduction.
1Navka PlanitiaPlanitia8° S, 42° W2,100 km39.5-3.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
2Rusalka PlanitiaPlanitia3° N, 170° E3,600 km39.5-3.5
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
3Undine PlanitiaPlanitia13° N, 57° W2,800 km39.7-3.3
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
4Dzerassa PlanitiaPlanitia15° S, 65° W2,800 km39.7-3.3
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
5Hinemoa PlanitiaPlanitia5° N, 95° W3,700 km39.8-3.2
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
6Kanykey PlanitiaPlanitia10° S, 10° W2,100 km40-3
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
7Tinatin PlanitiaPlanitia2° S, 16° E2,500 km40.1-2.9
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
8Gunda PlanitiaPlanitia16° S, 93° W1,200 km40.2-2.8
Sunlight: 96% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
9Sogolon PlanitiaPlanitia8° N, 107° E1,600 km40.2-2.8
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
10Llorona PlanitiaPlanitia18° N, 145° E2,600 km40.3-2.7
Sunlight: 95% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
11Guinevere PlanitiaPlanitia22° N, 35° W7,520 km40.3-2.7
Sunlight: 93% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
12Dotetem FluctusFluctus6° S, 178° E530 km40.3-2.7
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
13Turan PlanumPlanum13° S, 117° E800 km40.4-2.6
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
14Panina PateraPatera13° S, 50° W50 km40.4-2.6
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
15Laufey RegioRegio7° N, 45° W2,100 km40.5-2.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
16Phoebe RegioRegio6° S, 77° W2,852 km40.5-2.5
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
17Niobe PlanitiaPlanitia21° N, 112° E5,008 km40.6-2.4
Sunlight: 93% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
18Eigin CoronaCorona5° S, 175° E200 km40.6-2.4
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
19IngridCrater12° S, 51° W11.5 km40.6-2.4
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
20Vasilisa RegioRegio11° S, 28° W1,200 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
21Hyndla RegioRegio23° N, 66° W2,300 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 92% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
22Viriplaca PlanumPlanum20° S, 112° E1,200 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 94% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
23Wen ShuCrater5° S, 56° W31.5 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
24Sith CoronaCorona10° S, 177° E350 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
25Atla RegioRegio9° N, 160° W3,200 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
26Darago FluctusFluctus12° S, 47° W775 km40.7-2.3
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
27Tahmina PlanitiaPlanitia23° S, 80° E3,000 km40.8-2.2
Sunlight: 92% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
28Nirmali CoronaCorona6° S, 172° E60 km40.8-2.2
Sunlight: 99% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
29BascomCrater10° S, 58° W34.6 km40.8-2.2
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
30KaisaCrater14° N, 67° W12 km40.8-2.2
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
31Wawalag PlanitiaPlanitia30° S, 143° W2,600 km40.8-2.2
Ground: Flat ground — the easiest thing to land on and build across · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
32IlgaCrater12° S, 53° W10.8 km40.8-2.2
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
33Argimpasa FluctusFluctus0° N, 176° E950 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
34Saunau CoronaCorona1° S, 173° E200 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
35Zhivana CoronaCorona13° N, 73° W180 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 97% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
36Beta RegioRegio25° N, 77° W2,869 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 90% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
37Poloznitsa CoronaCorona1° N, 58° W675 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 100% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
38Khabuchi CoronaCorona11° S, 173° E285 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
39Thetis RegioRegio11° S, 130° E2,801 km40.9-2.1
Sunlight: 98% of the sunlight the sunniest latitude on Venus gets · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
40Akhtamar PlanitiaPlanitia27° N, 65° E2,700 km40.9-2.1
Ground: Flat ground — the easiest thing to land on and build across · Water: Same as everywhere else on this world
What this ranking cannot see
Elevation. Every score above comes from a latitude, a longitude and a feature class — never from a terrain model — so slope, local shadowing and the polar peaks of eternal light are invisible to it. That last one matters: on a world tilted barely a degree, a ridge top near the pole can catch sunlight almost continuously while a crater floor a few kilometres away has not seen the Sun in two billion years. This model scores the average surface at a latitude, so it reads poles as dark and ranks them accordingly. Where a real mission targets a pole, that is usually the reason — and the reason to read this as one input, not a verdict.