Harrat Khaybar and Umm Jirsan lava tube
Unreviewed draft
This page was built from a teammate-supplied list. The text is teammate-written, unreviewed. Sources pending.
This is a candidate: a suggestion that is not in our reference list.
Summary
not provided
Location
- Country
- Saudi Arabia
- Coordinates
- 25.60, 39.93 (approximate)
- Elevation (m)
- 1000
- Year first used as an analog
- not provided
Terrain and geology
not provided
Climate
not provided
Parameters matched
not provided
Why it is an analog
One of the largest tube systems in a true desert, with 14,000 km² of bare basalt. The tube floor and walls are protected from weather and light much like lunar pits. It scores high on composition and terrain.
Key differences: where the analogy breaks down
Hot; tube floors hold sand, clay and water after rains; Earth air.
Experiments done
Archaeological survey of the Umm Jirsan tube (2019-24; PLOS One 2024) showing 7,000+ years of human use; Saudi Geological Survey mapping of the 14,000 km² volcanic field.
Experiments proposed
Lunar lava-tube habitat analog in a hyper-arid, unvegetated setting (the tube is ~45 m wide, 12 m high); radiation/thermal stability logging inside tubes; skylight-entry robotics; basalt ISRU (sintering) on site.
How to adjust it
Seal a tube segment for habitat-module tests; simulant floor; remove modern debris.
Access
not provided
Hazards
not provided
Sources
Sources pending (no sources in CSV).
v1 score, percentile and overlap flag
A descriptive lookup of scores v1 already stored. It is not a test, and a high percentile here does not show that this is a good analog.
v1 used this site
No. The nearest v1 site, "rub al khali", is about 1240.2 km away.
| Score view | Result | Percentile | Score | Distance to tile (km) | Overlap flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecting Ridge C1, Base | Scored | 84.5 | 10.2 | 2.6 | Not in a flagged tile |
| Connecting Ridge C1, Landing and mobility | Scored | 90.6 | 11.4 | 2.6 | Not in a flagged tile |
| Connecting Ridge C1, Power and night | Scored | 84.5 | 7.4 | 2.6 | Not in a flagged tile |
| Shackleton rim, Base | Scored | 90.2 | 36.0 | 8.1 | Not in a flagged tile |
| Shackleton rim, Landing and mobility | Scored | 98.0 | 41.2 | 8.1 | In a flagged tile |
| Shackleton rim, Power and night | Scored | 90.2 | 26.2 | 8.1 | Not in a flagged tile |
Overlap flag: whether the tile used for the score is one v1 flagged as stable in its top group across the Monte Carlo runs.
What these scores can and cannot tell you
- This is a lookup of scores v1 already stored. It is descriptive and is not a test of the method.
- A site is matched to the best-scoring tile that passed the gates within the match radius. A different radius would give different numbers.
- Tiles are large compared with most sites, so a score describes the surrounding area, not the site itself.
- Scores exist only for tiles that passed the land-cover and data gates. A gated-out or unscored site has no score, which says nothing about how good an analog it is.
- Percentile is the share of scored tiles in that view with a lower score.
- The Moon score is effectively terrain only. Mars is a low-confidence secondary result.
- v1 failed its negative controls, so a high percentile here does not show that a site is a good analog.
- The ranking is not checked against independent data. Gravity, air, dust and radiation are not scored.
- Sites are compared with views of their own body only.
- Match radius: 20 km, the radius v1 used.