Show only pixels within TI range (J m⁻² K⁻¹ s⁻¹ᐟ²)
Opacity:85%
Weather (MCD) ⓘ
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About this layer
Climatological averages from the Mars Climate Database — not real-time observations. Read each value as a long-term mean for the selected season and time of day.
Ls (areocentric solar longitude) is the season angle. 0° = northern spring equinox, 90° = northern summer solstice, 180° = northern autumn equinox, 270° = northern winter solstice.
LTST is local true solar time in 2-hour steps.
Grid is 5.625° × 3.75° (~330 × 220 km). Position inside one cell does not change the value.
Height appears only for temperature, density, and wind. Interpolated (km) stops are 0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 km above the local surface. Raw (levels) stops are 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. A raw level follows the terrain and is not a height in kilometers. Pick one category. Its slider is the one that shows. Surface (ground) Temperature, surface pressure, column dust, and CO₂ ice have no height control.
Wind particles use that same height. On a surface field they stay at the surface. Landing ellipses always use surface wind, not the height slider.
Limitations: coarse grid, one dust scenario at a time, no storm-scale events. Use for planning context, not final engineering numbers.
Height above the surface ⓘ0 km
Stored slices: 0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 km. Not a continuous profile.
0 km5 km10 km20 km40 km
Model level ⓘLevel 0
Stored levels: 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. Not kilometers.
051020304050
Ls (season) ⓘ0–30° · N. spring
LTST (hour) ⓘ02:00
Opacity70%
Lat/Lon: 0.0000, 0.0000
Drawing Path (0 points)
Altitude Profile
Analyzing path...
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Map Layers
Rover waypoints unavailable.
Slope Classes
🚀 2°
Ice Probability
THEMIS Thermal Inertia
Ocean Level
Basemap
Default
Satellite (zoom 3+)
No basemap
TerrainWhere it is safe to land
Zoom to 5 or closer to analyze this area. Current zoom: 0.0
Initializing engine…
First load only — cached after this
Analyzing this area…
Safety limitsFail these → cell excluded (red, dashed border)
Max landing elevation ⓘ−2000 m
−5000m−4000m−3000m−2000m−1000m0m
Cells above this turn red (excluded). Moves the green/red boundary — NASA baseline: −2000m.
Thermal Inertia safe range ⓘ200–800 TIU
01002003505008001400 TIU
Cells outside this range → excluded (red). Only applies where THEMIS data exists.
Terrain steepnessRight handle excludes (red). Left handle only hides.
Terrain Steepness ⓘ0–15°
0°5°10°15°🚀 2°
Steeper than the right handle is excluded (red). Flatter than the left handle is hidden, not marked unsafe. NASA hard limit: 15°; Starship target: 2°.
View filtersOutside these → cell hidden from view (not marked unsafe)
|Latitude| range0–90°
0°30°60°90°
NASA solar power limit: ≤30°. Starship may tolerate more.
Shown elevation band−6000–−1000m
−6000m−4000m−2000m−1000m
Hides safe cells outside this band (does not mark them unsafe). Deeper = denser atmosphere.
Excluded cells (dashed red border) fail a safety limit: elevation, slope >15°, craters, or thermal inertia.
Opacity:80%
Landing EllipsesMonte Carlo footprint at one target
Landing ellipse ⓘ7 × 3 km
99% of touchdowns fall inside this ellipse, centred on the aimpoint.
Drag inside the frame to move it. Drag the handles to resize, and the round handle to turn it.
Approach heading ⓘ90° E
NESWN
Turns the long axis of the ellipse. 90° E means the vehicle arrives flying east, which is typical for Mars.
MCD wind ⓘLs 90° · 15:00
Climatological mean MCD surface wind (long-term average, not live). It shifts the cloud downwind, which is why dots sit off the cross. Ls 270° is the dusty, windiest season.
Precision ⓘ±0.8% (1σ)
4000 samples. Worst-case uncertainty on the acceptance rate.
Advanced
Wind exposure ⓘ100 s
Stand-in for vehicle aerodynamics — not a measured value.
Random seed ⓘ
Runs are reproducible: same seed → same footprint.
Hazard limits come from Terrain: slope ≤ 15°, elevation ≤ −2,000 m.
Subsurface Ice (SWIM) Morgan, G. A., Putzig, N. E., et al. (2025), Planet. Sci. J., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad9b24
Thermal Inertia (THEMIS) Putzig, N. E., et al. (2013), MARSTHERM, AGU Abstract P43C-2023 — underlying data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University (THEMIS)
Atmosphere / Climate (MCD) Mars Climate Database (c) LMD/LATMOS/OU/IAA/ESA/CNES. F. Forget, E. Millour, M. Vals, V. Zakharov, T. Pierron (LMD) and S.R. Lewis (OU)
Rover waypoints NASA/JPL-Caltech MMGIS traverse localizations (Perseverance, Curiosity). Photos: NASA Mars raw-image RSS API.