Lowana Planitia
What Lowana Planitia is
Lowana Planitia is a planitia — a low plain — on Venus, 2,700 km across, centred at 43.0° N, 98.0° E in the Shimti Tessera quadrangle. It is the 41st largest named feature on Venus and the 19th largest of its class there.
Where the name comes from
Australian aboriginal tale heroine; lived alone by the sea weaving baskets. The International Astronomical Union approved the name in 1997, under the theme it applies to every planitia on Venus. Of the 41 features of this class catalogued on Venus, the naming categories run Greek (4), Finland (3), Slavic (2), Russia (2).
What it would take to settle Lowana Planitia
Venus scores 43 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 43.0° N, 98.0° E.
What this spot has going for it is ground — flat ground — the easiest thing to land on and build across. What works against it is water — same as everywhere else on this world.
Computed from Lowana Planitia'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 Venus (radiation geometry, earth link). Gravity, pressure, delta-v and distance from the Sun are the same everywhere on Venus 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 planitia features on Venus
All 41 planitiae on Venus — mapped together, with the naming theme and the size distribution.